> 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.

RedHat 6.1 and 6.2, and will be using MPIPov here shortly when I finish
my cluster.

> 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.

The few times I've used POV-Ray under Windows the GUI actually hindered
me more than helped.  Way too much switching back and forth between my
editor and the GUI.  The only reason I used the GUI was for the
rendering display in the window, and x-povray has that.

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

I wouldn't use it were it included.

> 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)

If there were a front end, I'd rather see it in something less
distribution-specific, such as Perl/Tk (my personal choice).  As soon as
you start building it for Gnome or KDE, people who don't use those
systems might be alienated.

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

vi all the way -- same editor I use for everything from Perl code to
college papers.

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

I'm actually pretty happy with ASCII text -- it's very easy to search
and I don't have to jump around to a lot of different files or bring up
a separate viewer (such as Netscape or Acrobat)

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

Although I use RedHat, it doesn't matter to me.  The way it's packaged
now works fine, and isn't distro-specific like an .rpm or .dep would be.

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

I've just started with MegaPov, and have been looking for something like
photons for quite a while (to realize my dream of raytracing a disco
ball! :).  And as I said above, I'll probably start using MPIPov when I
get my cluster going.  Now, if only there were a MPI-MegaPov...


Also, thanks for asking -- I'm glad to see Unix being persued as a
viable platform for software such as this!

Wyatt Draggoo

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