Am 25.09.2017 um 05:01 schrieb Kenneth:
> clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> Here's a new version of POV-Ray to test:
>>
> [snip]
>> Be advised that this binary-only release wants to reside in an existing
>> v3.7.x installation.
>>
> 
> So, it seems that installing this into v3.7.1 beta 9 (which is a 'stand-alone'
> version of Pov-Ray) is OK to do(?)-- but I'm not absolutely sure. The only
> reason I ask is that the new version's download page says, "This is a
> binary-only development release; to install, copy the binary into an existing
> POV-Ray 3.7 installation." It doesn't specifically say "3.7.x" there.
> 
> Sorry if I sound like I'm nit-picking or over-analyzing the situation.

Technically, it should work best with any POV-Ray v3.7.x release proper
- which de facto means v3.7.0. (POV-Ray v3.7.1-rc1 should also work
fine, but that installer is no longer officially available.)

It /may/ work ok with any v3.7.x-beta, but it isn't designed to do so,
and there may be subtle problems arising out of it - stuff like being
unable to find certain files, or loading a file from an unexpected
directory.

The background there is that POV-Ray for Windows uses a portion of its
version number in directory names and registry keys, namely `vX.Y`
(which I refer to as the "generation") for any POV-Ray vX.Y.Z final
release. Subsequent versions of the same generation are supposed to
replace earlier installations - but only as soon as they're out of beta,
so beta versions instead use `vX.Y-beta` for their directory names and
registry keys, so that installing them won't ruin a good installation of
the predecessor version.

Alpha versions don't come with an installer, so that risk doesn't exist
there; to the contrary, they need portions of the predecessor
installation to live; so alpha versions use plain `vX.Y` for their
directory names and registry keys.

(And in the case of v3.8.0-alpha, `v3.8` won't do, as the predecessor
version's generation was v3.7.)

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