Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> As an aside, I think there *has* to be a legacy parser (as I believe clipka
> suggested). There is just too much useful stuff that will break, and users who
> will either stick to pre-4.0 versions or stop using POV completely.

  It's reasonable to expect that some kind of legacy parser module will
be possible, which will allow rendering old scenes with POV-Ray 4.0 (what
the parser internally would do is to convert the old SDL input so that it
can be parsed by the new parser, or such; I'm not sure it would be a great
idea to replicate object creation etc. in two places).

  However, if the new scripting language is a complete rehaul, it will not
be possible to call eg. macros of the old SDL from the new scripting
because they will simply be incompatible. Basically it will be impossible
to convert old SDL macros to the new scripting in all possible cases because
macros are not pure functions. With current macros you can create ugly hacks
like opening a { block in your main scene and closing it inside a #macro
(which may be cool for short code contests, but makes things like byte
compiling a nightmare, if not an impossibility).

  In fact, any kind of legacy parser and converter (be it internal or a
separate tool) will be a rather large job. I have this little feeling that
this might actually never happen due to lack of labor force. Someone would
have to volunteer to do this, and he would have to do it properly.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message