Ken wrote:

>   What benefit, if any, is there to running Pov under unix or one of it's
> incarnations ?

1) If you want to play with the source, you don't have to pay hundreds
of dollars for the development tools.  Free compilers, debuggers, etc.
are all more readily available for Unix than they are for most other
platforms.

2) While you're at it, a lot of those tools (and similar tools, such as
scripting languages) work well for generating scene description
language.

3) Better scripting languages for automating ray-tracing.

4) It's generally been faster (though POV-Ray 3.1 for Windows will run
faster on Intel Pentium II's on account of MSVC++ having superior
Pentium II-specific optimizations than gcc).

5) Better support for clusters (PVMPOV).
 
>   What drawbacks are there, if any, to running Pov under unix or one of it's
incarnations ?

1) Shortage of modeling utilities (this is the big one right now).

2) Lack of a GUI front end (most useful for novice users).

3) Most of the advantages above are only useful to advanced users.  

There have been various unofficial GUI front-ends that do nothing more
than figure out what command line you want to run and run that (though
none are current so far as I know), and there are various versions of an
emacs mode that offers many of the benefits of the integrated editor
from the Windows version.  At this point I don't anticipate an official
Unix GUI interface, integrated editor, or emacs mode any time soon. 
People who really need GUI front ends aren't typically using Unix. 
Maybe in a few years it will be necessary.  It probably wouldn't have an
integrated editor, though it might be made to open files in a
user-defined editor.  The last thing Unix needs is another text editor.

In summary, novice users, especially those unfamiliar with Unix, are
probably best off not using the Unix version and should instead use the
version that runs on the platform with which they have the most
experience.  Experienced users, especially those familiar with Unix,
will find that it offers some unique benefits.

-- 
Mark Gordon
mtg### [at] povrayorg

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