I don't recall either of these being posted.  Both are for POV-Ray 3.5 beta 7,
Win98SE, PIII 733/160, Athlon 700/192.

First, in rand.inc, the following change should be made to Vrand_In_Box:

#macro VRand_In_Box(Mn, Mx, RS) (< rand(RS), rand(RS), rand(RS)>*(Mx-Mn) + Mn)
#end

As it is currently written, it provides numbers outside the specified bounds,
since SRand returns [-1,1].

Second, I know (now) that rand is not valid in functions (it should be, IMHO),
but if you try with #declare F = function { rand(x) }

you get:
#declare F = function { rand(x) } <----ERROR

Parse Error: Expected 'function identifier', } found instead

I'm not exactly sure what this error is intended to mean.  All I know is it
should have choked on rand and given an error there, instead.  Or I could be
completely wrong.

An argument in favor of making rand usable in functions (there's probably
several against, and I might have read them at some point) is that it would make
most of the non-VRand macros in rand.inc much more efficient (as functions
instead of macros).

Michael
--
#macro M(D,J)text{ttf"cyrvetic.ttf"D 1,0translate-J}#end#macro N(E,K)#local A=
M(E,K)light_source{-z*30rgb 1projected_through{A}}#end N("Michael"<1.6,-.2,5>)
N("Johnson"<1.9.8,5>)sphere{z*9,4pigment{gradient x+y scale 10color_map{[0 rgb
x][1rgb x+y]}sine_wave}} // (c)2001 Michael D Johnson red### [at] wvadelphianet

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In article <3becade9@news.povray.org> , "Redbeard" 
<red### [at] wvadelphianet> wrote:

> Parse Error: Expected 'function identifier', } found instead
>
> I'm not exactly sure what this error is intended to mean.

It thinks "rand" is a declared function because it doesn't know what else
rand could be.  This is the correct behavior.

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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"Thorsten Froehlich" <tho### [at] trfde> wrote in message
news:3becf762$1@news.povray.org...
> In article <3becade9@news.povray.org> , "Redbeard"
> <red### [at] wvadelphianet> wrote:
>
> > Parse Error: Expected 'function identifier', } found instead
> >
> > I'm not exactly sure what this error is intended to mean.
>
> It thinks "rand" is a declared function because it doesn't know what else
> rand could be.  This is the correct behavior.
>
>     Thorsten
>
I just would have thought that the error would point out rand, or at least
something closer to rand.  If an unknown identifier in the form of a called
function (i.e. function { Test(x) }) is parsed, the error is "Expected
'operator', ( found instead"  This makes a little more sense to me.  Why would
rand (which probably shouldn't be visible to the function parser) generate a
different error?

I'm not questioning the judgment, it's just that the message (as it stands)
doesn't make sense, epsecially if someone decides to try to use rand in a
function.

Michael

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In article <3bef019e@news.povray.org> , "Redbeard" 
<red### [at] wvadelphianet> wrote:

> I just would have thought that the error would point out rand, or at least
> something closer to rand.  If an unknown identifier in the form of a called
> function (i.e. function { Test(x) }) is parsed, the error is "Expected
> 'operator', ( found instead"  This makes a little more sense to me.  Why would
> rand (which probably shouldn't be visible to the function parser) generate a
> different error?
>
> I'm not questioning the judgment, it's just that the message (as it stands)
> doesn't make sense, epsecially if someone decides to try to use rand in a
> function.

It has to do with the slightly different internal representation of "rand"
compared to user defined variables.

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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"Thorsten Froehlich" <tho### [at] trfde> wrote in message
news:3bef90ca@news.povray.org...
> In article <3bef019e@news.povray.org> , "Redbeard"
> <red### [at] wvadelphianet> wrote:
>
>
> It has to do with the slightly different internal representation of "rand"
> compared to user defined variables.
>
Ok.  Thanks,

Michael

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