so, the following is just me "ranting", and if you're .. of a delicate
disposition, do not read on.

I wanted to air, for some time now, the (perceived) grievances I harbour
regarding all-things-POV-Ray.

being used as a benchmarking s/ware when new processors are launched
is nice _but_ should not be(come) the primary (or only) role of POV-Ray.

POV-Ray, as a product, is .. lacking, across the spectrum, imo.
if POV-Ray was a human, I'd say that it is a magnificent body,
withering away because the head is .. ill.

let's start with the website, because for potential new users, that is
what will be looked at.

in the "POV-Ray-related News", for instance, we have "POV-Ray 3.7.1"
entering the  "beta phase".  3.8 alphas do not, apparently, exist,
and no mention of direction/what's happening now, either.

for instance, on April 14th 2018 user "Fred Lopes" announced a book
on POV-Ray, free, albeit in Portuguese/Brazilian.
not newsworthy, apparently.  in fact, not a single reply was posted.

the most recent item is a bit of .. self-congratulatory back-slapping,
dated Aug 2019, but the bulk of items is dated 2016, and older.

also, while the HOF sidebar _is_ nice, showing more recent works, on
a rotating basis, would be good/better.  you know, stuff by artists,
Norbert Kern, for instance, the Thomas de Groot's, Pekka Aho's, etc.

and regarding the "Resources : Links" page, why is it allowed to be so
lacking in relevance?  and to be so _full_ of dead links?
is the 'POV-TAG' doing any work, at all?

and why does the "Support" button simply link to the NNTP server?
(suggest the Wiki would be a more appropriate target)

and POV-Ray ought to have a (well-advertised) IRC channel too, imo.

then there's the (perceived) lack of direction.
so, WFP is developing 'povr', JG is developing his 'hg' series,
but _who_ is working on POV-Ray's development?

not helped by the fact that feature requests, when they're made in
a newsgroup post, do not even elicit a developer's response, generally;
('clipka' being the noteworthy exception)

what is needed, desperately imo, is keeping users in-the-loop, that is,
publish what is being worked on and an approximate schedule, regarding
those features.  tell "us", roughly, when will we be going from 3.8.0a
to the next release.

and it would be nice to think that when you make decisions wrt future
development, you will not do things like creating a dependency on a
multimedia and gaming library (SDL) just to draw a window!

then, lastly, there's the .. inertia.  the "illness" of the head.
how many years have you now been sitting on the Moray source?
(hint: Tony Blair was then still Prime Minister of the UK, and
the financial crisis of 2008 was not yet on the horizon)

lack of resources, whether $$ or people, cannot be an explanation,
because, if it were, then why are offers of financial support, and or
a willingness to purchase POV-Ray related content, totally ignored?

basically then, I blame the people at the top, the mysterious POV-TAG
team, and Messrs Cason and Froehlich, for the .. stagnance (and more).
proud to have their names in the banner, but not willing (or able) to
pull their thumbs out of the collective back-orifice.


exasperated regards, jr.

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