Debi Hodges wrote in message <368A418A.3EAFB81F@emrys.com>...
>Women, in general are not linear thinkers by nature, men are usually the
>programmers and women the literature writers.  Of course there are many
>points to the contrary.  I am trying to learn POVray, but with no
>programming in my past, (just PaintShop Pro) there is a very different
>learning curve that I must face.  Though, I figure if I can learn
>JavaScript and Perl, I certinally can do raytracing =D
>
>Debi


I used to use the "raw" POV language to create my scenes, until I came
across Moray.  Now, I've got so used to it's almost totally visual
modelling, I'd probably have to re-learn how to actually write POV files "by
hand" (even though I regularly program in C++ ;).

Check out http://www.stmuc.com/moray/ and download Moray 3.1 - it should
save time having to learn the language and, for me at least, the visual
approach allows me to make much more detailed and realistic images than I
otherwise would have been able to.


Matt

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I find myself constantly struggling with JavaScript!!!  C++ would be a
dream!  I'm a lowly old VB developer ;-)

--
Lance.


---
For the latest MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone

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In case it wasn't already mentioned, and I'm not about to read this
massive outpouring of posts (due to "female" in the subject line?), the
female is well-known for being typists (hope that isn't a sexist
remark-- but then, gee, this whole thread probably is) too, so I don't
have a clue to the mystery.
Contrary to Ken's statement about females not getting into the "nuts and
bolts", I have a sister who uses a computer a great deal and has the
remnants of one and has done drive installs, etc. on her working one.
She even fixed her VCR once (although it was simply a drive belt
problem). And she's a beautician, or hair dresser, by trade. You
wouldn't guess any of it by looking at her, perhaps she's one of the
rare few. Come to think of it, her husband cooks the meals and works at
a woodshop. They're just plain strange I guess.

Ken wrote:
> 
> Just out of curiosity why is it that the majority of Pov
> users appear to be the male half of the human race ?
> There certainly is no lack of female paint program users
> and I would think that this approach to graphics production
> would be a natural extention to their creativity. Contrary
> to that belief though the absence of females posting their
> work in these groups and asking questions about the use of
> the program would indicate otherwise. Is it perhaps the
> nature of men to get into the nuts and bolts of "things"
> while women really don't care what makes it work as long as
> they can use it ? Pov-Ray certainly falls into the class of
> a nuts and bolts program.
> 
> --
> Ken Tyler
> 
> tyl### [at] pacbellnet

-- 
 omniVERSE: beyond the universe
  http://members.aol.com/inversez/POVring.htm
=Bob

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Yes, there are a few exceptions to the "rule" as they say...

Actually, interestingly enough, I'm male, and I'm the fastest typer in my
year level at school (not that it's much to brag about ;-)

A friend of mine (female friend, just to set the context) is very interested
in POV-Ray.  She picked the language up in about a week and started making
really good images with it!!!  I couldn't believe how fast she'd learnt it!
She's also is doing IPT (Information Processing and Technology) next year,
it is a programing course.  Her subject list is:  Extenstion English,
Physics, Math B, Math C, Chemestry and IPT...  Math B and C are the higher
math levels.  She's very scientifically minded.  So there we are, just
thought I'd share that with you all :-)  Oh, and she also got Dux of the
year level this year...

--
Lance.


---
For the latest MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone

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Thanks to all who took the time to respond to this thread. I must
say the answers were somewhat predictable with a couple of
surprises but since it has digressed to discussions on 3DS Max
and moray registration numbers it IS time to end it.

I guess it boils down to this -
If asked what I really understand about the female half of our race
in general I would say " Sure I have one extra minute to fill you in.
What do you want to know". From a males point of view females
must be considered an alien race and that's that. If there are more
male Pov-Ray users it is because that is simply the way things are.
There are no hidden factors involved, no secret agendas, no sinister
plots, it's just a contemporary fact of life.
  I for one am not going to let it bother me anymore. It would be
nice to see more female users get invloved with the art, as it's been
mentioned they have a certain sensitivity and creative talent that few
males can match, and hopefully they will be better represented in
the Pov-Ray community in the future.

--
Ken Tyler

tyl### [at] pacbellnet

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I guess what you're trying to say is "Please shut up Lance" ;-)

--
Lance.


---
For the latest MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone

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Lance Birch wrote:

> I guess what you're trying to say is "Please shut up Lance" ;-)
>
> --
> Lance.

Did I say please ?

--
Ken Tyler

tyl### [at] pacbellnet

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Just my two cents! 
If you want to see more women using POVray the thing you have to do is
advertise it!

I noticed that there are two ways of introducing someone to raytracing:

1. You tell them that it has to do with higher math a lot of vectors and
programming sciences. This is true, but you don't need to know them all
to use POVray. This way you may be admired by the folks that you show
your pictures (Yeah, I'll like to be admired too ;-) ). It's  just that
nearly everybody I know is freaked away from this.

2. You can show them that raytracing is just another program to be used
and that with help of moray, textures editors etc. you can get fantastic
results very fast. And more important ... A LOT OF FUN!!!!

I may be wrong but many people in this group have admitted that they
have a scientific or engineering background. For them an introduction
shown in (1) wouldn't neccessarily scare them away. If this background
is needed to start with POVray (no, it's not!) than the low number of
female POVray users is explainable because in many scientific or
engineering fields women are still not as numerous as men. I hope this
will change in the future because there is really no reason why they
shouldn't be there. I have a sister who has an engineering degree in
electronics and she knows her stuff well.

Maybe the user documentation program initiated by twyst can help to
bring more non scientific folks to POVray.


Marc
--
Marc Schimmler

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Matthew Bennett wrote:
> 
> There was a program on TV a few weeks ago that talked about differences
> between male and female brain functions... (yeah, interesting eh? ;)... but
> one thing it did appear to show (from medical and experimental data) was
> that the majority of women find it considerably harder to visualise 3D
> images/objects/space than men.

I agree with this. There are general differences in male/female brains that
make them usally to get best results in different fields.
Males are generally better in 3D cognition, female are better in algebra
and lingustical skills (tha vast majorty of translators are female).
These are obviously general tendencies, since I know personally guys
that are
disasters with 3D "thinking" and there are some very good female 3D artists
(Eva Fontana for instance).

My poor english will be the proof of the lack of linguistical skills of mens...
;)

Happy 1999!
(---------------------------------------------------------------)
( Diego Krota   http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/2419 )
(---------------------------------------------------------------)
(      Never do anything you wouldn't be caught dead doing      )
(---------------------------------------------------------------)

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he he he, no!  :-)

--
Lance.


---
For the latest MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone

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