Hello group,
    What are the guidelines for patching POV-Ray in the cleanest possible
way? I would like my patch to cause as few conflicts as possible with other
patches that exist or may be released, Also, I need to learn how to use diff
to be able to release my patch. Can anyone point me to a tutorial?

Thank you!
George Pantazopoulos

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In article <3e0886d6$1@news.povray.org>,
 "George Pantazopoulos" <the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*> wrote:

>     What are the guidelines for patching POV-Ray in the cleanest possible
> way? I would like my patch to cause as few conflicts as possible with other
> patches that exist or may be released,

Usually, people put something like "#define MyPatch" in frame.h, and 
enclose patch-specific code in #ifdef blocks, so removing that define 
makes POV compile without your patch, and the modifications you make are 
clearly visible.


> Also, I need to learn how to use diff to be able to release my patch. 

No you don't. Just listing the changes is enough, if you are clear about 
where they go.


> Can anyone point me to a tutorial?

"man diff"?
What system are you developing on? It looks like you are posting on a 
Windows machine...

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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Hey Christopher,
    Thanks for your help :) Youre right, I think I could get by without
diff, but it seems like a more professional thing to do. Maybe I should
still learn it for my own education even though I don't use it for POV-Ray?
My main machine is a Windows 2000 box, but I also recently built a Linux
box, which I'm really loving. My patch would need to work on both Linux and
Windows. Are the linux sources very different than the Windows ones?

Regards,
George Pantazopoulos


>
> >     What are the guidelines for patching POV-Ray in the cleanest
possible
> > way? I would like my patch to cause as few conflicts as possible with
other
> > patches that exist or may be released,
>
> Usually, people put something like "#define MyPatch" in frame.h, and
> enclose patch-specific code in #ifdef blocks, so removing that define
> makes POV compile without your patch, and the modifications you make are
> clearly visible.
>
>
> > Also, I need to learn how to use diff to be able to release my patch.
>
> No you don't. Just listing the changes is enough, if you are clear about
> where they go.
>
>
> > Can anyone point me to a tutorial?
>
> "man diff"?
> What system are you developing on? It looks like you are posting on a
> Windows machine...
>
> --
> Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
> POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
> http://tag.povray.org/

Post a reply to this message

In article <3e089108$1@news.povray.org>,
 "George Pantazopoulos" <the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*> wrote:

> My main machine is a Windows 2000 box, but I also recently built a Linux
> box, which I'm really loving. My patch would need to work on both Linux and
> Windows. Are the linux sources very different than the Windows ones?

The core source code is identical.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

Post a reply to this message

In article <3e089108$1@news.povray.org> , "George Pantazopoulos" 
<the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*> wrote:

> Thanks for your help :) Youre right, I think I could get by without
> diff, but it seems like a more professional thing to do.

No, it makes it only harder to read and more difficult to check what you
changed.  Having the whole file is much easier as one can then use modern
GUI based graphical diffs and very easily track what you changed rather than
having to first make a backup copy, the apply your changes and only after
that do the graphical diff.  As you can see, using diffs just makes life
harder for everybody.  And exchanging a few KB more hardly makes a
difference these days anyway!  So no need to use the ancient diff :-)

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich
e-mail: mac### [at] povrayorg

I am a member of the POV-Ray Team.
Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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Thanks Thorsten, I was not looking forward to using diff.. sort of dreading
actually :)

George



"Thorsten Froehlich" <tho### [at] trfde> wrote in message
news:3e08a0f0$1@news.povray.org...
> In article <3e089108$1@news.povray.org> , "George Pantazopoulos"
> <the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*> wrote:
>
> > Thanks for your help :) Youre right, I think I could get by without
> > diff, but it seems like a more professional thing to do.
>
> No, it makes it only harder to read and more difficult to check what you
> changed.  Having the whole file is much easier as one can then use modern
> GUI based graphical diffs and very easily track what you changed rather
than
> having to first make a backup copy, the apply your changes and only after
> that do the graphical diff.  As you can see, using diffs just makes life
> harder for everybody.  And exchanging a few KB more hardly makes a
> difference these days anyway!  So no need to use the ancient diff :-)
>
>     Thorsten
>
> ____________________________________________________
> Thorsten Froehlich
> e-mail: mac### [at] povrayorg
>
> I am a member of the POV-Ray Team.
> Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

Post a reply to this message

Thorsten Froehlich wrote:

> No, it makes it only harder to read and more difficult to check what you
> changed.  Having the whole file is much easier as one can then use modern
> GUI based graphical diffs and very easily track what you changed rather than
> having to first make a backup copy, the apply your changes and only after
> that do the graphical diff.  As you can see, using diffs just makes life
> harder for everybody.  And exchanging a few KB more hardly makes a
> difference these days anyway!  So no need to use the ancient diff :-)

That sounds like a feature request

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