Re: Future of OpenGL package (Earnie, please read this)

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu>]

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, Andre Bleau wrote:

> Brian Ford wrote:
>
> >Andre Bleau wrote:
> >...
> >
> > >>Are there any plans to update Cygwin's OpenGL headers to include 1.3 or
> > >>1.4 support?  Be it via using the w32api Mesa ones, or by other means.
> > >
> > >Let that be clear: headers alone will not provide access to OpenGL 1.2+
> > >functionnality. You will still have to program the loading of OpenGL
> > >extensions, if they are available from the graphic card driver. Maybe
> > >something like extgl
> > >(<http://www.levp.de/3d/index.html>http://www.levp.de/3d/index.html)
> > >could be packaged
> > >for Cygwin to make that easier.
> >
> >Sure, I know headers don't magically create functionality.  They just
> >allow access to that which already exists.  But, most vendors these days
> >(ATI & Nvidia) provide 1.3 or 1.4 functionality.  It would be nice to use
> >it without jumping through hoops.
>
> Even, with 1.4 headers, you would sill need to jump through hoops to use
> 1.4 functionality. You will still need to load the functions dynamicaly
> before using them. You wouldn't be able to simply call the functions as
> when developing for UNIX.

André,

Cygwin DLL uses the autoload functionality for some of the required
functions, so that they can simply be called after a test (i.e., something
like

if (hasSomeFunction())
  callSomeFunction();

Perhaps this could be employed in the OpenGL library layer as well...  I
don't know enough off-hand about the autoloading process, but there is a
fairly detailed description in winsup/cygwin/how-autoload-works.txt in the
Cygwin sources.  Might be worth investigating...

> [snip]
>
> I think we waited long enough for freeglut and some update of GLUT and GLUI
> is overdue.
>
> So, I propose to make a quick update of the OpenGL package ASAP, while we
> wait for freeglut. To quick update would:
>
> - Remove /usr/include/GL and rely on /usr/include/w32api/GL from the w32api
>   package, that would be set as requesite
> - Add glut.h to /usr/include/w32api/GL

So you need to coordinate with Earnie on this (as the subject says).

> - Update the GLUT dll to Nate Robin's 3.7.6
> - Have GLUI and GLUIX libs compiled for gcc 3.3

You will probably also need to release the old libraries as compatibility
packages for those who still use the pre-gcc-3.3 OpenGL binaries.

> - Move the doc to /usr/share/doc

This would be useful.

Just my 2c.
	Igor
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