In general I think that the object definition syntax of the
current SDL should be preserved.  I also agree that the
addition of additional features would be good, though
command-set bloat should be avoided. My wish list includes...

1) An optional "environment {}" command section where
the command line options for a scene can be placed within
the scene file (like the COBOL environment section).
One objection I've read on this is that letting the
environment (image size, animation options, etc.) be set
from inside the scene file breaks compatibility with the old
system, but it would be easy to get around that by just
adding a "default" setting to quick-rez, if it's rendered with
default it reads environment {} otherwise it ignores it.

2) Better medias. IMO fixing this will eventually lead to
re-defining the syntax for medias, and possibly the need
to resort to scan-line like routines, particularly for things
like sub-surface light scattering.  The upside here is the
possibility of describing the way a media should look,
instead of tweaking commands to the routines that are
supposed to get the look, but often don't.  This matches
the original philosophy of SDL, SDL is a description of
a scene, not a description of the algorithms needed to
render a scene.

3) Binary reading from files.

4) Post processing of images. This could fall under something
like a post_process{} section.  One thing that might be nice
here would be the ability to directly produce animation files in a
couple of formats.

5) Allow the linking of external libraries, so that POV can
access custom programming routines from various languages.

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