andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> >>>   And you know, it's possible to have *both* 3.6 and 3.7 at the same time.
> >>>
> >> Yes but as I won't use 3.7 for the reason stated, that would not make sense.
> >
> >   So you basically refuse to even try to test your scenes if they work
> > with pov3.7 or not? Yes, it makes a whole lot of sense.
> >
> What would be the point if I am not going to spend time figuring out
> what went wrong if it does?
>

You don't need to figure out what went wrong, just how to replicate it (ie,
the scene that caused it).

-tgq

Post a reply to this message

Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> dkanter wrote:
> > First of all, does anyone know when beta 23 will be released?  Second, would
> > the developers consider removing the date checking in betas?  I understand
> > the rationale behind it, but it seems like a very user-unfriendly feature,
> > especially when there isn't always a current beta available.
>
> Starting with the next Windows beta I will be changing things such that
> after the expiry date, a warning is displayed which has to be clicked-
> through rather than not running at all. Though there probably still will be
> an absolute timeout, it will be in the order of six to twelve months or so.
>
> -- Chris

Chris,

Thank you very much for listening to the concerns that we've brought up!  I
really appreciate it, and I'll look forward to future versions.

Just a brief comment - I use POV-Ray with some scripting tools, and it would
be nice if whatever warning you display can be 'clicked through' using
key-strokes only.  The Windows mouse input API is fairly unreliable and
broken, so a key-strokes only script is much more desirable.

Thanks again for all your efforts!

David

Post a reply to this message

> 
> Just a brief comment - I use POV-Ray with some scripting tools, and it would
> be nice if whatever warning you display can be 'clicked through' using
> key-strokes only.  The Windows mouse input API is fairly unreliable and
> broken, so a key-strokes only script is much more desirable.
> 

Ugh... If you want good compatibility with scripts, stick to the stable 
versions.

How about a captcha on the click-through screen? :P (just kidding!)

Post a reply to this message

> Starting with the next Windows beta I will be changing things such that
> after the expiry date, a warning is displayed which has to be clicked-
> through rather than not running at all. Though there probably still will 
> be
> an absolute timeout, it will be in the order of six to twelve months or 
> so.
>
> -- Chris

I'm also going to add a "thanks" here - this would be great. Whilst I 
personally think using a Beta in scripting is stupid, if it's a windows 
dialogue box (Yes/No or Yes/No/Cancel, etc...) then using Tab Escape and 
Enter should do the job for windows scripters if they want to avoid the 
mouse. As to the linux version, a _huge_ message displayed for a couple of 
seconds sounds OK to me (Preferably only on the first image if an 
animation? - so maybe just in the thread that controls the render process, 
not in the render process itself.)

Thanks Again

-Simon

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

>>
>> Just a brief comment - I use POV-Ray with some scripting tools, and it 
>> would
>> be nice if whatever warning you display can be 'clicked through' using
>> key-strokes only.  The Windows mouse input API is fairly unreliable and
>> broken, so a key-strokes only script is much more desirable.
>>
> 
> Ugh... If you want good compatibility with scripts, stick to the stable 
> versions.
batch scripts may use a different subset of the language that you also 
want to check carefully in a beta. On top of that: we all have our 
preferences and environments, and what may seem a bad habit to you may 
make perfectly sense for somebody else.

Post a reply to this message

andrel wrote:
> BTW thanks Chris I really appreciate it that you at least try to solve 
> my problems and make it possible for me to do beta testing again. Would 
> you be interested in benchmark results for a 256-processor SGI Altix 
> 4700 system? If so I could ask my former PhD student who has access to 
> one of these.

I'd love having such results ... tho a shell prompt would be even
nicer <grin>

-- Chris

Post a reply to this message

dkanter wrote:
> Just a brief comment - I use POV-Ray with some scripting tools, and it would
> be nice if whatever warning you display can be 'clicked through' using
> key-strokes only.  The Windows mouse input API is fairly unreliable and
> broken, so a key-strokes only script is much more desirable.

IIRC all standard Windows dialogs can be manipulated with keystrokes. I use
this all the time (e.g. space bar presses the currently focused button, tab
changes the focus, etc).

-- Chris

Post a reply to this message

>> Agreed. I'm not testing the beta with real project
>
>  So because the beta has an expiration date you can't render a "real
> project" with it to test that it works? That makes a whole lot of sense.
>
>  All this "I can't use it continuously so I won't use it at all" is the
> silliest thing I have heard in a long time. It just doesn't make any 
> sense.
>
>  It's not like 3.6 and 3.7 were mutually exclusive and couldn't be located
> in the same system. This is just silly.

I have both 3.6 and 3.7, but frankly I just cannot be bothered to use 3.7 
for anything.  In the past whenever I went to use it and got the date error 
it was just so much inconvenience that I ran 3.6 instead.

IMO the binary should work as normal until the expiration date.  After that 
date when you load it it should check for a newer version on the website. 
If a newer version exists it should refuse to run and offer the option to 
download and update itself automatically.

If a newer version does not exist (or the POV server is not reachable), it 
should simply show a warning box for minimum 5 seconds (or whatever) saying 
that this is an old beta and not to post any bugs etc.

As for the "if we didn't have the time limit we'd get loads of bug reports 
for old versions", surely you just ignore (either automatically somehow or 
with your brain) any bug reports that are with people using older versions?

Post a reply to this message

Chris Cason wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> BTW thanks Chris I really appreciate it that you at least try to solve 
>> my problems and make it possible for me to do beta testing again. Would 
>> you be interested in benchmark results for a 256-processor SGI Altix 
>> 4700 system? If so I could ask my former PhD student who has access to 
>> one of these.
> 
> I'd love having such results ...
Ok I'll ask him.
>  tho a shell prompt would be even nicer <grin>
I don't understand what you mean. Access is all by batch, a gui on that 
machine is out of the question.

Post a reply to this message

andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> >  tho a shell prompt would be even nicer <grin>
> I don't understand what you mean. Access is all by batch, a gui on that 
> machine is out of the question.

  A prompt is not a gui. A gui is not the only way of using a computer.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message