I admire your attempt to motivate change. It seems like you invested a
lot of time writing this. POV-Ray is indeed in need of a facelift, but now
is not the time, and words alone do not make POV better. As I have learned,
personal action is of the escence to improve POV-Ray.

   If you want things to be more like you plan them, then get your hands
dirty and code till you wear your fingers down to a nub - prove that it can
be done. I, luckily, am still in the nose-in-the-books phase. I have much to
study - and practice, before I open my mouth again on any feature-requests
and the like (some of which I will hopefully back up with at least
pseudo-code).

   If you are unable to code, then at least do what I did to get Blinn
shading into MegaPOV: help the coders by doing some research for them. They
have a limited amount of time - this being their 'hobby' - and they spend
most of it coding, not researching. Also, a wish-list such as yours sounds
much sweeter to the ears with some papers/pseudo-code/code to back it up.

   As for your suggestions, yes, some of them sound valid, but others do
not. First of all, you should have known - if indeed you are so interested
in POV as to write this big long manifesto/proposal/whatever - that POV-Ray
3.5 is close to being completed, and indeed has many of the features you say
you would like POV to have. So be glad at least that some of your wishes
magically came true. Mine took much longer to reach fruition.

   Second, it would have also been wise on your part to read previous
discussions on the matter of OO'ing the POV SDL, to find out why the Team is
not persuing implementing it yet. That way you wouldn't have simply repeated
things we've read before, and might have found out that such a thing is in
the pipeline for indefinite future versions.

   Third, this suggestion of using C++ is also redundant, as you should have
noticed that the Team announced long ago that 4.0 would be done with it.

   To make a long story short: read before you write, study before you code
(so the Team doesn't spend months fixing it), code before you demand,
research and contribute thusly if you cannot code, and try not to rock the
boat.

   I could say a whole lot more to you, but my fellow POVers have said it
for me, so no need to repeat. Good day to you. Do not feel that we are
shunning you. Just pay more attention from now on, OK? :)

--
Anthony Bennett

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