I use POV-Ray on a Linux system with KDE (K Desktop Environment).

Currently, I edit my files on KATE (K Advanced Text Editor), which has a
nice highlighting feature for a multitude of scripting languages including
POV-SDL.
It also has a dockable terminal emulator so that I can execute my render
commands without opening a separate console.  I can have multiple editing
windows open at the same time and browse the file system from another
docked window.  All very good.

There are a few features more I'd like to have in a POV editor though.

1) I would like to have a dockable window into which my image is rendered.
(KPovModeler renders into a dialog window and gives you the option to
save.)

2) I would like to have a built-in feature for launching a new include or
pov file from a template and/or a dialog form.

3) I would like to have a list of declares and macros in a dock, one that's
built automatically from all #includes in my current project.

4) I would like to be able view the usage of any macro in the list without
having to open its include file in the editor.

5) I would like to have a configurable render command tool-button.

6) I would like to have a designated text output window.

( I realize that #2 - and possibly #4 - will be more definable once the team
has established the includes standard. )

I've done some C++ programming with the QT library, and building such an
editor seems like it would be a fun project.  But, there's no sense in
reinventing the wheel.

Can anyone tell me if such an editor already exists for my platform?
Is there anyone developing this sort of editor already?

I did download something called "QTPovEditor":
http://qtpoveditor.sourceforge.net/
It quits whenever I hit the <enter> key and is nolonger supported.
Its designer intends to replace it with "XPE."

BTW: KDE comes with an excellent modelling program called KPovModeler.  It
was through that application that I got started with POV-Ray.  I switched
over to scripting when I exhausted its capabilities. (There's only so much
of POV you can translate through a GUI app.)

Thanks,
Randall

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I realize that the above post may seem more appropriate in the povray.unix
group.  But, I'd like to see such an editor for ALL platforms.  QT is
multi-platform compile-able.  I sent a version of this post to KDE.  I'll
let you know what I find out. :)

-Randall

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Have you looked at Eclipse?

-- Chris

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Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> Have you looked at Eclipse?

Well...

Now I have!  Thanks, for the tip, Chris.

-Randall

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Randall Sawyer wrote:
> Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
>> Have you looked at Eclipse?
> 
> Well...
> 
> Now I have!  Thanks, for the tip, Chris.

If you are serious about creating a new interface for POV, once you've
decided what way you're going to go, please let me know. POV 3.7 has a new
front-end subsystem (C++ based) that makes it a lot easier to integrate with
IDE's.

-- Chris

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Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:

> If you are serious about creating a new interface for POV, once you've
> decided what way you're going to go, please let me know. POV 3.7 has a new
> front-end subsystem (C++ based) that makes it a lot easier to integrate with
> IDE's.
>
> -- Chris

Yes, I will do that.

-Randall

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Hi Randall,

Take a lok at PovClipse (http://povClipse.sourceforge.net) as well, it's an
Eclipse  plugin for editing Povray scene files.
It covers your point 2, 3, 5 and 6.

Officially PovClipse does not support Linux, but it ***should*** run. I've
reports from people using it on a Linux plattform.

Regards,
Wolf

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