On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:34:41 +0100, Christophe Raffalli
<raf### [at] univ-savoiefr> wrote:
> So I can not explain how such a small difference can make povray 
> exchange the front and back side (a pity the manual is not filled with 
> mathematical formulas as the OpenGL spef does !!! may be there is an 
> advanced user manual ?).

OpenGL API is for programmers, POV-Ray scripts are also for artists. They
shouldn't be contignously discouraged during reading manual IMO.

If programmers are interested, majority of formulas can be reached through
reading sources (though extracting some parts it is not an easy task).

ABX

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ABX wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:34:41 +0100, Christophe Raffalli
> <raf### [at] univ-savoiefr> wrote:
> 
>>So I can not explain how such a small difference can make povray 
>>exchange the front and back side (a pity the manual is not filled with 
>>mathematical formulas as the OpenGL spef does !!! may be there is an 
>>advanced user manual ?).
> 
> 
> OpenGL API is for programmers, POV-Ray scripts are also for artists. They
> shouldn't be contignously discouraged during reading manual IMO.

That is not a good argument the math could be in a separate chapter or 
documentation.

> If programmers are interested, majority of formulas can be reached through
> reading sources (though extracting some parts it is not an easy task).

This is very bad. Getting the math from a C (or C++) file is a nightmare.

Moreover, in a doc you can first give a simplification and the give 
refinment. In the code you immediately have the full refined solution 
where everything is mixed.

Moreover, the math involved are generally no so hard (linear algebra + a 
bit of phisics and there are probably some artist that could surprise 
you by understanding them :-)

> ABX

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