>I guess I missed something.  For the most part I don't see the point.


Okay, here are the major advantages:

*  Totally portable file-names, time/date, integrity checking.
*  Easier management for 3rd party modules.
*  Ability to take a fully-functional pov source snap-shot.
*  Simpler installation, less registry/variable dependence. (*)

The filename resolution issue is not yet resolved.
At the moment, POV simply looks in the current
directory and treats each tar file as an entry in
the library path.  This might not be the best policy -
I'm still thinking about it...  The intention is to support
this transparently - it should make no difference
if you are rendering from a real filesystem or a
tar filesystem.

Compression is under consideration - Pov already
includes the zlib library, so gzip or JAR support would
not introduce much new code.  My feeling is that
a case needs to be made for the parse-time expense
vs. space savings.  Also, it might be cleaner to support
compressed pov/inc as preferrable to compressing an
entire archive.

(*)  I'm considering a way to include the standard includes
and a few test scenes into the povray binary, so that the
minimal povray install is one file.  Copy-and-run.  Delete to
uninstall.  (Life should always be so simple.)

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