Here are my answers:

> 1) Under what operating systems do you use POV-Ray? Please be specific
> as to e.g. Linux distributions, versions, and so forth.  Multiple
> answers are fine.

Linux Redhat 6.1 (Probably changing soon to slackware...)

> 2) Do you want POV-Ray for Unix to have an official GUI front-end for
> your platform? Please indicate which one(s) if you list several
> platforms.

No, since I made my own GUI, that calls POV-Ray for each frame of an animation,
it can trace graphics, give time estimate, etc...  Building an official GUI
wouldn't be very effective IMO.  Improving the source code to implement it our
way would be better!

> 3) Would you want such a front-end to have a built-in editor?

If there ever were a front-end to POV-Ray (I hope the GUIless will still exist),
I wouldn't want any other editor than Emacs... maybe the front-end could call
your prefered editor or is you choice is none give the default one (made by your
team, a povray oriented editor)...

> 4) Any preference on languages/GUI libraries on such a front end, pro or
> con? (Tcl/Tk, Perl/Tk, Python Tkinter, Java AWT, gtk+, Gnome, KDE,
> Motif/Lesstif)

Definitely C++, and I would suggest using OpenGL...  there is a GUI toolkit for
labels, buttons, slidebars and such that can control your OpenGL animation...
but the animation stuff is of almost no use for you, you can just put the render
there, a toolbar over here, a menu up there, etc...  and it would be graphically
accelerated (the front-end that is, menus and such) by any 3dAccel Card!

> 5) What editor do you use for editing .pov files?

Emacs, is use it for any kind of edition (.c, .cc, .pov, .html, etc!..)

> 6) What format(s) do you prefer for documentation? (HTML, ASCII, PDF,
> ps, man, info, Word document, etc.)

I would be cool to have a HTML documention for quick reference and a PDF or ps
version for printed manuals (BTW, could you add color graphics of examples in
the doc? that would be very attractive and more fun to read!)

> 7) What sort of package management do you prefer for precompiled
> binaries?

I don't like the ideas of package management, but since I'm in Redhat and never
saw anything else, I'd say rmps?

> 8) What unofficial version(s) of POV-Ray (e.g. MegaPov, PVMPOV) do you
> use on a regular basis?

None, I use the Only, the Real POV-Ray! ;)

> What I plan to get from this:
> 1) Insight into the platforms for which official binaries perhaps ought
> to exist, used with 2, 3, and 4 to determine the operating systems(s)
> for which there is the strongest demand for a GUI, which in turn will
> help determine the language/toolkit used.

If you need help developping the GUI, I could help much for the OpenGL
version...  And keep in mind that the render is still POV-RAYTRACING!: slow but
so marvellous!  This is not a modeller, the OpenGL could easily manage animation
effects such as motionblur, fades-in/out, there could be an animation mixer
implemented!...  The future is ours to take! ;)

> 2) Related to the second part of 1.  Given the eventuality of an
> official GUI for Unix, this lets me know what platforms it needs to run
> on, which again affects the choice of language/toolkit.  In any event,
> the core renderer will remain available from the command line.

Talking about platforms... by building this thing with OpenGL libs, you can
easily port it to the Mac or Windows, let say it would take like 5 mins to
compile a working version for both of them!  It's the same code!  Maybe except
for file management (/home/name/..., c:/documents/..., MacOS:Documents:...)

> 3) While the last thing Unix needs is another text editor, I may be
> included to include one given
> sufficient interest.  Or I might do it on a lark, for which I'd hope
> you'd forgive me. ;-)

That sounds good to me! 

> 4) Related to 2.  This is one of the big questions from a practical
> standpoint.  The fact that it's still a question gives you some idea of
> where development is on an official front-end at this point (put on the
> back burner until 3.5 is further along).  This also lets me know whether
> anyone hates any of the options (Tk is ugly, Motif is ugly, Gnome/KDE is
> the subject of a religious war, Gnome and KDE aren't necessarily that
> portable to some of the commercial Unices)

Think about OpenGL!...  by linking the app static, the users would not need the
GLlibs... only for those that have accelCards, but they already have it!

> 5) Related to 3.  This gives me some idea of what users might want from
> an editor, if one gets included.  I'm also just curious.

Think about Emacs...  it's simply the best editor... we could provide a POV-ray
oriented configuration for tabs and everything...

> 6) Lets me know what documentation format Unix users want shipped with
> POV-Ray.  There are tradeoffs involved (ascii: universally supported,
> trivially searched, available on a console; HTML: widely supported,
> supports images, reasonably searchable, available over a network; PDF:
> fairly widely supported, supports images, most visually attractive).
> Word documents aren't a serious suggestion, but they're one of the
> formats we have for 3.1, so I'm laying it on the table for folks to hiss
> at. ;-)

You should provide a README saying to download the documentation.tgz with the
povray_GUI.tgz, and you should simply include all the docs in it!

> 7) Lets me know what package formats I might want to add.  Tarballs will
> always remain available, but I'm looking into adding other options, and
> I'm wondering how much interest there is.

There I can't help much... maybe rpms, but don't count me...

> 8) Lets me know what folks are using.  Mostly to satisfy my curiosity.

What I'm using?  If you were more specific?  I use POV-Ray 3.1 with emacs, some
C++ with g++, I render to ppm...  What else?

-----------

BTW, I would really enjoy working with that GUI...  That would be not too fancy,
very effective, would never slow a render, very informative, what can I say!

Hope this can be useful,
	Simon Lemieux

Post a reply to this message