After migrating to Linux, I found that I didn't miss the POV-Win IDE, except for
right-clicking and keyword auto-completion.  (I find that kwrite's auto-
completion gets in the way more that it helps.)

I am vaguely aware of unofficial Linux IDEs (or perhaps wishful thinking about
the existence of Linux IDEs), but I am not now moved to investigate such rumors.

Instead of simply right-clicking on embedded command-line arguments, I have to
highlight, drag, and drop to the terminal window, but recalling past render
configs is as easy as pressing the up-arrow.  I haven't figured out an easy
replacement for right-clicking on an #include file line.  Putting the POV system
directory in my .bashrc makes it slightly less inconvenient.

Surprisingly, I haven't missed the help system's keyword and index searches.
Perhaps it's because as my familiarity with POV-Ray increases, I have a better
sense of where to look in the documentation.  Or perhaps I just got spoiled by
POV-Win, and relied on the search capability more than I needed.  On the few
recent occasions where I didn't know where in the documentation to look, a grep
did the trick--and grep was one of the reasons I switched to Linux in the first
place!  (One can download Gnu tools to Windoze, but why bother holding down a
squealing pig to apply lipstick when you can have Linux instead?)

One bit of frustration is that kwrite treats .inc files as if they were PHP
files, with the result that half the file is highlighted as errors.  :-P  It
recently occurred to me to create a soft link with a .pov extension to trick
kwrite into using the desired syntax highlighting.  Problem solved, at the
expense of a more cluttered directory.

There's one case where, after a year of Linux, I can't seem to shake IDE
mentality.  Quite often, I make a change to a scene file, do a render, and stare
in frustration as the change makes absolutely no difference.  Then I remember:
there's no auto-save!

Post a reply to this message

On 03/01/2013 08:22 PM, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> One bit of frustration is that kwrite treats .inc files as if they were PHP
> files, with the result that half the file is highlighted as errors.  :-P  It
> recently occurred to me to create a soft link with a .pov extension to trick
> kwrite into using the desired syntax highlighting.  Problem solved, at the
> expense of a more cluttered directory.

I think there may be a more elegant solution ...

I forget what distribution of linux you're running but on openSUSE you 
can change it: Start Menu->Personal Settings->File Associations

And for syntax highlighting, while in kwrite look under 
Settings->Configure Editor then find the Highlighting Text Styles tab 
... click on the Highlight drop down and I have a Sources/POV-Ray3.7 
entry that you /may/ not have on your system! Look in 
povray.binary.utilities and find my post "new syntax highlighting for 
gedit" on my opensuse12.1 system the file is located at 
/usr/share/gtksourceview-3.0/language-specs/povray.lang I tried kate for 
a bit and didn't like it (now using gedit) but there's also a post in 
same news group for that editor and I have that file located at 
/usr/share/kde4/apps/katepart/syntax/povray.xml

Jim

Post a reply to this message

James Holsenback <nom### [at] nonecom> wrote:
> I forget what distribution of linux you're running but on openSUSE you
> can change it: Start Menu->Personal Settings->File Associations

It is openSUSE 12.2.

I have a Kickoff Application Launcher, but I don't see any Start Menu.

> And for syntax highlighting,

Already on it.  It was installed by the POV-Ray 3.6 installation process, and
I've tweaked it from there.  (It doesn't recognize 3.7 keywords, but I'm sure I
can figure that out when/if I get a round tuit--or just wait for the 3.7.0
binary, since I've been living without those keywords highlighted for over a
year anyway.)

Post a reply to this message

On 03/03/2013 01:54 PM, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> James Holsenback <nom### [at] nonecom> wrote:
>> I forget what distribution of linux you're running but on openSUSE you
>> can change it: Start Menu->Personal Settings->File Associations
>
> It is openSUSE 12.2.
>
> I have a Kickoff Application Launcher, but I don't see any Start Menu.

If you can search then look for File Associations

>
>> And for syntax highlighting,
>
> Already on it.  It was installed by the POV-Ray 3.6 installation process, and
> I've tweaked it from there.  (It doesn't recognize 3.7 keywords, but I'm sure I
> can figure that out when/if I get a round tuit--or just wait for the 3.7.0
> binary, since I've been living without those keywords highlighted for over a
> year anyway.)

IIRC only on windows (when using the built-in editor) is syntax 

you to in p.b.utilities have files that when placed in the proper 
directories (mentioned in my previous post) provide 3.7 syntax 
highlighting ... I cloned the files and updated ALL the 3.7 keywords, so 
all the grunt work has already been done.

Post a reply to this message