Re: [Alephmodular-devel] Platform-independence structure (was: Developer Rant #1 :) )

[Timothy C. <tco...@ha...>]

> Ok and as a final parting shot about the SDL stuff, it is completely 
> possible and practical to use, say, SDL_Video to insulate you against 
> the differences between DisplaySprocket and DirectDraw et al., or 
> between wgl and agl et al. (for attaching OpenGL contexts to on-screen 
> windows etc.), etc. without committing to using SDL_main to insulate 
> you from differences in application initialization between platforms, 
> and without committing to using SDL_event as the basis for your event 
> loop.  (Perhaps Br'fin's negative experiences have primarily been with 
> these latter components.)  So you can mix-n-match.  :)

Just to step into this debate a minute...

I don't know all that much about SDL.  If we made AM be largely 
SDL-dependent, would that mean that one would have to install SDL to run 
AM?  That is, could all the relevant libraries (reasonably) be part of 
AM itself, or do they have to be installed separately?

Also, what are the different important parts of SDL, how exactly could 
each be used within AM, and how much interdependence is there among them?

The reason I ask these things is that I am leaning, along with Br'fin, 
strongly in the direction of having SDL be a separate platform.  My main 
reasons are two: dislike of dependence on separately-installed libraries 
and dislike of SDL widgets.

Thank you.

Timothy Collett

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