Version 0.2.0 of the Unix frontend patch to povray-3.6.1 for Unix
is available for download here:

http://pov4grasp.free.fr/download/povray-3.6.1-frontend-0.2.0.diff.bz2

    	List of changes from version 0.1.0:

- add wrapping via $POV_STREAM_WRAP_WIDTH, defaults to console width or 80
- add basic stream formatting capability via $POV_STREAM_FORMATS
- add command-line options overriding corresponding $POV_STREAM_* settings
- fix stream output functions to not use static buffers
- fix status stream to obey wrap width (useful for background color)
- fix stream redirections to write non-empty files


	A generic linux povray binary is also available here:

http://pov4grasp.free.fr/download/povray-nc-0005.bz2

Download the file, unpack it with 'bunzip2 povray-nc-0005.bz2' and set its
executable permission with 'chmod +x povray-nc-0004'.

The binary includes the linux framebuffer patch described in this thread:
http://news.povray.org/439de1da$1@news.povray.org
It has support for the X Window display but comes without SVGAlib display.
The binary was compiled with the Intel C++ compiler to take advantage of
Pentium 4 optimizations.  It should however work on any other platform
as well.


	Release notes:

This second release of the Unix frontend patch adds two new facilities
to customize the POV-Ray text streams.  Additionally to stream colors,
the text lines can now be formatted using (almost) arbitrarly format.
Also the text wrapping can be set to a specific value above 80; it
defaults to the size of the terminal (or 80 caracters when it can't
be determined).  For example:

export POV_STREAM_WRAP_WIDTH=120

will wrap the text lines after 120 caracters (unless the terminal
window is smaller and that its size can be determined).

The string formatter follows the same philosophy as the stream colors:
they are set via an environment variable (or command-line option, see
below) where labels specify which streams to be formatted.  The allowed
labels are: all, fatal, warning, status, debug, render, statistic, banner.
For instance:

export POV_STREAM_FORMATS="all=POV> %s <POV:fatal=*** %s ***:status= "  # note the
last space

Here, all streams will start with POV> and end with <POV unless specified
otherwise; the fatal errors will be marked with surrounding stars while
the status stream won't be formatted at all.  The "%s" indicates the
original POV stream to output.  A single %s formatter is allowed, i.e.
only the first %s formatter will be translated to the POV stream.
If no %s formatter is found but the format string isn't empty, no
custom formatting is applied and the POV stream is output as-is.  This
is the case of the status setting above.  The colon ':' caracter that
seperates the various settings can be escaped with a backslash as \:
if part of the format.  Backslash is escaped as \\.  Other usual
escaped caracters such as \n (newline) or \t (tab) are not recognized
and are passed as n and t, respectively.

See a sample image with the above settings under p.binaries.images
(same subject).

All POV_STREAM_* environment variables now have their command-line option
counterparts, with several variants (one or two leading dashes, next dashes
replaced by underscores).  The recommanded variants are:

--pov-stream-colors="settings"
--pov-stream-formats="settings"
--pov-stream-wrap-with=size


	Installation instructions for the source patch:

1) copy the file linked above to the parent directory of the povray-3.6.1/
    directory (source distribution only).  The povray source distro that you
    intend to patch should be the official release.

2) IMPORTANT: if you already applied a previous version of this patch,
    you must unpatch the povray sources first with the *old* patch, e.g.

% bzcat povray-3.6.1-frontend-0.1.0.diff.bz2 | patch -p0 -f -R

3) patch the povray-3.6.1/ sources:

% bzcat povray-3.6.1-frontend-0.2.0.diff.bz2 | patch -p0 -f

    and ignore the possible warnings (in principle they are harmless).

4) cd to povray-3.6.1/ and run the ./bootstrap script.  This requires
    having the GNU autotools installed, i.e. autoconf and automake.

5) run './configure && make check' as usual.


	- NC

Post a reply to this message

> the text lines can now be formatted using (almost) arbitrarly format.

	Additional note:

	For techinal reasons, the status stream can only be formatted with
a prefix text, i.e. everything after the %s formatter will be ignored.
	For instance:

export POV_STREAM_FORMATS="status=RENDER> %s something"

the last " something" in the format won't be output at all.

	- NC

Post a reply to this message

> --pov-stream-wrap-with=size

	There is a typo here: it should read

--pov-stream-wrap-width=size

	- NC

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Calimet <pov### [at] freefr> wrote:
>         For techinal reasons, the status stream can only be formatted with
> a prefix text, i.e. everything after the %s formatter will be ignored.
>         For instance:

> export POV_STREAM_FORMATS="status=RENDER> %s something"

> the last " something" in the format won't be output at all.

  I don't understand why.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

>>        For techinal reasons, the status stream can only be formatted with
>>a prefix text
>   I don't understand why.

	Because the status stream is not line-buffered and is written
in chuncks, which makes it difficult to correctly deal with a right-
aligned suffix text.

	- NC

Post a reply to this message