Editing POV-Ray (section)

==Software==
===Development and maintenance===
Official modifications to the POV-Ray source tree are done and/or approved by the POV-Team. Most patch submission and/or bug reporting is done in the POV-Ray newsgroups on the [nntp://news.povray.org/ news.povray.org] [[Usenet|news]] server (with a [[Web interface]] [http://news.povray.org/groups/ also available]). Since POV-Ray's source is available there are unofficial [[Fork (software)|fork]]s and patched versions of POV-Ray available from third parties; however, these are not officially supported by the POV-Team.

Official POV-Ray versions currently do not support [[shader]] plug-ins.<ref>for such an implementation, see e.g., http://www.aetec.ee/fv/vkhomep.nsf/pages/povman2 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070207122812/http://www.aetec.ee/fv/vkhomep.nsf/pages/povman2 |date=2007-02-07 }}</ref> Some features, like [[Radiosity (computer graphics)|radiosity]] and [[spline (mathematics)|spline]]s are still in development and may be subject to syntactical change.

===Platform support===
POV-Ray 3.6 is distributed in compiled format for [[Mac (computer)|Mac]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Linux]].
Support for [[Apple–Intel architecture|Intel Mac]]s is not available in the [[Mac (computer)|Mac]] version, but since [[Mac OS X]] is a version of [[Unix]] the Linux version can be [[Compiler|compiled]] on it.

The 3.7 versions with [[Symmetric multiprocessing|SMP]] support are officially supported for Windows and Linux. Unofficial [[Mac (computer)|Mac]] versions for v3.7 can be found.<ref>[http://megapov.inetart.net/povrayunofficial_mac/index.html povrayunofficial_mac] on megapov.inetart.net</ref>

POV-Ray can be [[Source port|ported]] to any platform which has a compatible [[C++]] compiler.

===Licensing===
Originally, POV-Ray was distributed under its own ''POV-Ray License''; namely, the POV-Ray 3.6 Distribution License<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.povray.org/distribution-license-3.6.html |title=POV-Ray 3.6 Distribution License |publisher=povray.org |access-date=2016-12-12}}</ref> and the POV-Ray 3.6 Source License,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.povray.org/source-license-3.6.html |title=POV-Ray 3.6 Source License |publisher=povray.org |access-date=2016-12-12}}</ref> which permitted free distribution of the program source code and binaries, while restricting commercial distribution and the creation of derivative works other than fully functional versions of POV-Ray.

Although the [[source code]] of older versions is available for modification, due to the above 3.6 and prior license restrictions, it was not [[Open-source software|open source]] or [[free software]] according to the [[Open Source Initiative|OSI]] or the [[Free Software Foundation|FSF]] definition of the term. This was a problem as [[source code]] exchange with the greater [[Free and open-source software|FOSS]] ecosystem was impossible due to [[license incompatibility]] with [[copyleft license]]s.

One of the reasons that POV-Ray was not originally licensed under the free software [[GNU General Public License]] (GPL), or other open source licenses, is that POV-Ray was developed before the GPL-style licenses became widely used; the developers wrote their own license for the release of POV-Ray, and contributors to the software worked under the assumption their contributions would be licensed under the POV-Ray 3.6 Licenses.

In 2013, with version 3.7, POV-Ray was relicensed under the [[GNU Affero General Public License]] version 3 (or later).<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.povray.org/download/
| title=Download POV-Ray 3.7.0
| last=Cason |first=Chris
| date=8 November 2013
| quote=Starting with version 3.7, POV-Ray is released under the AGPL3 (or later) license and thus is Free Software according to the FSF definition.  [...] Full source code is available, allowing users to build their own versions and for developers to incorporate portions or all of the POV-Ray source into their own software provided it is distributed under a compatible license (for example, the AGPL3 or – at their option – any later version).
| access-date=11 November 2013}}</ref> Thus POV-Ray is since then [[free software]] according to the [[Free Software Foundation|FSF]] definition and also [[open source software]] according to the [[Open Source Definition]].