[fpc-pascal] fpGUI powered by OpenGL

[Vincent Snijders]

2010/12/20  <dhkblaszyk at zeelandnet.nl>:
>> But why is it not possible to integrate this with the regular fpGUI ?
>> Can you explain in a couple of sentences ?
>
> Can't remember having said that it was impossible with the current approach.
> In fact it is perfectly doable. However (free)glut and opengl are already
> available on a large number of platforms/targets. So if fpGUI is built upon
> these libs then you immediately take the benefit of being able to support
> these platforms. Additionally you don't have to implement a "complex"
> interface between the different platforms this is handled already by glut
> and opengl for you. So in effect it could make fpGUI simpler. And the last
> plus is having a hardware accelerated gui. It just means it's lightning fast
> and that's a plus for UI's.
> Thats not all however, there are minusses. By using glut, you limit yourself
> to the supported platforms/targets. So if new platforms/targets come along
> then there is no way (unless you supply patches to the project) to add them.
> With the current approach you're free to do it yourself. Also the API is
> plain rigid. This means you'll have to adapt to that and live with it
> (notice it's a plus and minus depending on how you look at it). (That is why
> I would like to see a fpGlut some day ;) and believe me it will come to that
> eventually!)
>
> I probably forgot a few plusses and minusses, but that's about it as far as
> I'm concerned. Also I don't mean to say that using an opengl/glut backend is
> superior to the current ones. It just has other benefits I suppose.

The above explains why it is useful for an application developer to
use an openGL backend.

It does not explain the following: Since fpGUI already has two
backends (afaik, X and winap), why can't openGL a third one? Did you
change the way fpGUI interfaces with its backend? Is this change so
incompatible with the current backends, that they cannot be modified?

Vincent