On Thu, 10 Jun 1999, Jon Taylor wrote:
> > 1. Linux (Unix) and Windows are, by far, the most popular platforms for
> > Mesa/OpenGL. The GLX and WGL interfaces are very well established.
> > Nobody will use a Mesa-specific interface instead of GLX/WGL since
> > they'd be limiting themselves to Mesa versus many other OpenGL
> > implementations.
>
> Untrue. If the new generic interface can be implemented using a
> dynamic library based system, it would not necessarily have to be
> Mesa-specific. It could be implemented directly or as a wrapper layer
> around the GLX/WGL/etc interfaces, whether those interfaces are
> themselves implemented by Mesa or another OpenGL-type library/driver.
Which is another way to say that this hypothetical package would be a new
kind of GLUT. We need a new GLUT - so that's not such a bad idea.
But putting it inside Mesa is (IMHO) a very bad idea.
> > If you can design a uniform layer on top of some of these interfaces
> > you should consider how many people will actually make use of it
> > before you expend a lot of time on it.
>
> This generic interface idea is a godsend, IMO. I see no reason why
> this generic interface should not immediately be written. I volunteer
> to write (or help write) the generic-to-GGIMesa and generic-to-GLX
> wrappers, in both directions. If the generic interface works out, I'll
> see about trying to get some game developers to support it. They should
> be _very_ happy to have a platform-independent way to use OpenGL without
> having to use GLUT, and also not tying them to X windows the way GLX
> does....
Why "without GLUT"? People seem to regard GLUT as some kind of inferior
way to get at the windowing issues - when in fact it's actually pretty
good.
Personally, I quite like GLUT. It has two serious problems:
1) It's not LGPL - so we can't modify and redistribute it.
2) Nobody likes the fact that your application is stuck inside
glutMainLoop. That's trivial to fix - but see (1).
There are also a bunch of minor problems - but if there were an
OpenSource version, they would be ironed out in the first week.
What I'd like to see happen is a two-phase project:
PHASE 1: Do a straight 'cleanroom' rewrite of GLUT so we can put it
into the public domain with a clear conscience. This would
aim to be a 100% perfect clone.
PHASE 2: Fix the parts we don't like.
> I really want to do this. Thomas and anyone else who is interested,
> please e-mail me and let's get something going.
I know there are LOTS of people who'd help out if this was GLUT-2, and
it would be instantly useful to all the gazillions of programs written
using the present GLUT.
I have little enthusiasm for a totally new interface layer though.
I've been tempted to launch a GLUT-2 project myself - but I confess
to not knowing enough about ALL the windowing systems it'd have to
play with - and in any case I'm too busy with my other projects.
Steve Baker (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
Raytheon Systems Inc. (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.hti.com
Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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