Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> In six years of using windows versions of povray, I've got a few habits 
> deeply ingrained.  One is that I have long descriptive filenames, which also 
> include version numbers, and like a packrat I've stored all the versions 
> along the way.  I've stored just about all my work in one honkin' huge 
> directory.  I've also highly compartmentalized my character system into 
> multiple include files (minimum of four per character) and am working on 
> comic book format which puts multiple scenes on an image-- more and more and 
> more scene files!   I've also sort of scoffed that people were actually 
> typing out povray and remembering a whole bunch of switch codes-- it always 
> seemed like Inspector Gadget saying "Go Go Gadget-- raytracer!"

I'd preferably made versioning etc with directories:

/home/aero/povray
/home/aero/povray/3.1g/scenes/people/
/home/aero/povray/3.1g/includes/people_1,inc

etc.

> I finally got povray for linux working under knoppix 3.8 and got my first 
> taste of povray in linux. I kept clicking on the "povray" icon and "nothing" 
> was happening. Then it dawned on me.  Suppose I was to have to type out the 
> actual letters p-o-v-r-a-y followed by a filename followed by some switches? 
> I started typing out povray and then filenames, and kept misspelling them. 
> (Hey, lest you accuse me of non-RFTMming, hey,  the help file in Windoze 
> version is most easily accessed through the "application" of povray. I'll 
> find it someday)

If you open the terminal and just type "povray", it'll tell you the 
switches etc. I usually shoot for +D +P +Ifile.pov +W1024 +H768 oslt. 
*n?x -shells has a common ability to full the filename, if you just 
press tabulator (fil+<tab> -> file.pov). But Povray's old way to demand 
the switches on one this (+Ifilename instead of +I filename - checked, 
this has been corrected at least for 3.6.1) was PITA, cause it messed up 
the namefilling capability

> It's kind of like going to the banquet of the foreign dignitary and finding 
> out that they really do eat puppies.  I don't mean to start a flame war or 
> anything, I'm as much poking fun at my computer ignorance as what is likely 
> your culture, of which it must be said, "Not that there's anything wrong 
> with that" in true Krameresque fashion.

Yep, things are different sometimes. My cousin has driven (still might - 
I don't know) Pov's Win-version under Wine for the frontend (still 
raytracing with Linux-version for speed).

> I would ask.  This setup seems to work great for making a few iterative 
> changes to a few files, but doesn't at this hour seem conducive to managing 
> great slews of files in the way Window's  GUI version is capable of.   Am I 
> wrong? Any tips? Any plans to GUI it?

You're certainly not the first one who have missed Pov's WinGUI when 
changing to Linux (note here, that GUI is a well-made-one, IMO). I must 
be different, when I'd like a modeler that reads and writes the SDL, 
instead of some own file format (and this for Linux, please). For 
example, one good and well-known modeler for Win is Moray. But back in 
my Win-time, after I exported a scene to SDL and changed it by hand, I 
couldn't import it back.

If the *n?x -version is GUI'd someday, I'll most propably be a GUI-user, 
too.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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