"Mr" <m******r******at_hotmail_dot_fr> wrote:
>
> What if in POV 4
> we had the possibility to use spaces or tabs as a synonym to what curly braces
> currently do, but we could still use those braces themselves ?
>

If spaces and tabs were to suddenly have real meaning in POV 4, and depending on
how we each write POV code-- the layout of the text-- it could break all of our
old scenes, going back decades.

For example, I personally write code with tabbed indents, just to make the
various constructs clear in my mind. Like...

sphere{0,1
     texture{
          pigment{rgb 1}
          finish{...}
            }
     normal{...}
      }

This is especially helpful to me in very complex scenes. (Others here probably
have their own ways of writing such stuff.)

If those tabs or spaces were to take on a syntactical importance going forward,
it would wreak havoc with old scenes. Chaos! :-(

Personally, I have always liked the fact that POV-ray's SDL syntax did not
impose any meaning on tabs or spaces; it would have been one more 'layer of
abstraction' to add to the learning of the syntax, in my opinion. I am not a
'programmer' in the strict sense, though, so I don't know how other languages'
syntax rules make it easier or harder for beginners to learn those languages.
POV's syntax 'made sense' to me from the get-go.

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