POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.advanced-users : How to address last 2 components of 5-component vectors? : Re: How to address last 2 components of 5-component vectors? Server Time
20 May 2024 19:59:24 EDT (-0400)
  Re: How to address last 2 components of 5-component vectors?  
From: Bald Eagle
Date: 10 Jul 2016 09:25:01
Message: <web.57824b95ff0686005e7df57c0@news.povray.org>
Le_Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:

> Actually, they are meaningful : a 5D vector would be interpreted as a rgbft colour
when nothing else is present (aka 
rgbft is implict).

Then shouldn't that actually be said - explicitly, right there in the
documentation, right at that spot, where it belongs?
Even if it's "redundant"?
Because the documentation's purpose is to illuminate the reader - at the time of
reading.

*** And I'll bet that if someone like Bill P. found it confusing, then that
means that thousands of others likely will, or they will attach no special
meaning and implication to it. To me, that's not "documentation".



Also - forgive me, but I don't understand what you're trying to say.
What do you mean by "when nothing else is present"?
A 5D vector would have to have SOME kind of context, correct?
It doesn't just float in an otherwise empty .pov file.

                      <1, 2, 3, 4, 5>

Even if it's one line out of 10,000 (#declare Vector = <1, 2, 3, 4, 5>;) does it
really have any "implicit meaning"?

I understand that lesser vector quantities may get automatically "promoted" to
5D vectors by the parser because the parser - or the person(s) who program(med)
the parser had that in mind.  So, in that sense, the _promotion_ has an implied
purpose and meaning, but until the 5D vector is actually used for something,
it's just - 5 numbers.  Isn't it?

I'm currently using them as convenient little 5-element arrays that I don't have
to initialize.  The first three values are spatial coordinates, and those last 2
values have nothing whatsoever to do with color.


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