RE: [oglbase-discuss] Updated GL_EXT_get_proc_address spec

[John Dennis]

> So why would any context need to be bound in order to call GetProcAddress?
> The implementation of GetProcAddress in this case is fairly trivial ...

You are making the assumption the API knows about every driver (e.g. type of
context) that could be created. For that to be the case the API would have to
search for and load every driver when a process binds to OpenGL, that's pretty
heavy weight. It would be easier and faster if the driver just registers its
capabilities when it gets loaded. The API cannot know apriori about every
possible extention entry point that might get exported so it has to get this
information from the "drivers".

And no, I don't believe requiring a bound context invalidates the value of
context independent function pointers, its is also consistent the rest of
OpenGL.

John