"Reactor" <rea### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> It isn't immediately clear to me why you couldn't implement units like that on
> your own.  One of the thinks that makes pov powerful is the fact that you can.
> Consider something like this:

(1) I would want to eliminate the need for the "*" operator (being lazy), and
the #declare intro needed (at least for the most common dimensions).

(2) Though of course your approach is perfectly possible, it doesn't come with a
standard framework; for instance, someone may use "m" while someone else may use
"meter" (or "metre" :P).

(3) Having a standard framework for distances would also allow to interoperate
with features inherently dependent on actual physical distance (like the
experimental Subsurface Light Transport code).

> #declare MyVar = 1.5;
> sphere{ Pos, 1.5ft }   // ok, fine
> sphere{ Pos, MyVarft } // wait, the value of MyVar used in feet, or MyVarft?

Definitely MyVarft of course. Can't be implemented any different, and I guess it
wouldn't be difficult to explain this to users.

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