"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.49cbb9e38a87b99f93bfb07f0@news.povray.org...
> While 3.7 is still in beta stage, I think it is worth already starting to 
> think
> about the next generation SDL, which I guess will be the key feature of 
> POV
> 4.0.
>
> Yes, a lot has been said about this before, but I propose doing some more
> systematic brainstorming.

A couple of things that I didn't yet see discussed that I think are going to 
need to be added into this discussion at some stage:

Backwards Compatibility
There's a lot of time been invested in tutorials, interfaces, macros and 
objects.
Much of the written information out on the Internet (including the years of 
newsgroup postings) doesn't specify which version it relates to, so if this 
material is rendered largely redundant it's probably going to be wise to 
totally change the product name. Otherwise there's a risk of years of 
confusion that may create difficult barriers to new users.

Inventing New Languages
There are a lot of mature languages about in common usage with comprehensive 
and well designed structures and support channels. It may be better to adopt 
one existing language, providing API/DOM access to the C++ core with 
official support for that language. Enthusiast for other languages could 
then add support for other languages as trends change.

Maybe a solution would be to create an integration layer with native support 
for an enhanced version of the established POV-Ray SDL and, at the same time 
expose the API/DOM. As a particular programming language becomes a popular 
choice for the POV-Ray community in years to come it could become the 
defacto standard and could be added to the short list of officially 
supported languages.

Chris B.

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