Re: [Glsdk-devel] The purpose of the GL SDK

[H. H. <hen...@gm...>]

I think you put it out very clearly and right on the point. I agree on your
views and goals.


On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 10:15 PM, Jason McKesson <ko...@gm...> wrote:

>  Personally, whenever I begin a project of any particular size, the first
> question I ask is what it should do. What is the purpose in creating it. I
> find this useful, as any debate about what should or should not be included
> in the project can usually be cleared up by looking at its purpose. Or, at
> the very least, it is easier to see which alternative fills the purpose
> better than the other.
>
> Normally, I would do this by making a (prioritized) list of goals. However
> for this project, I think it would be easier to list who should want to use
> the GL SDK and for what reasons. The audience for the SDK should drive all
> aspects of the design of the project.
>
> I would say that our audience is two-fold. One section of our audience is
> the "new to OpenGL/graphics" programmer: the neophyte. This is someone who
> decided to do some graphics work, heard about OpenGL, and wants to have a go
> at it. This person cares about seeing something working and learning about
> how and why it is working. This person wants detailed examples, a clear,
> well-documented codebase, and above all, for it to work with as little fuss
> as possible.
>
> The other section of our audience is the hobbiest GL programmer. This is
> someone who may probably has some GL experience. This programmer has some
> understanding of graphics, and may be interested in getting a greater
> understanding. However, the hobbiest differs from the neophyte in a very
> specific way: the hobbiest wants to code something specific. The neophyte
> just wants to learn; the hobbiest wants to implement some form of shadow
> mapping. He is not interested (at the moment) in building a large,
> complicated engine for doing it. He is more interested in getting a specific
> result, interfacing with OpenGL and getting it to do that cool think he
> heard about. The hobbiest wants to make little demo programs that do
> cool-looking things.
>
> The neophyte is interested in examples, tutorials, documentation, and a
> simple, easy-to-use codebase. The hobbiest is interested in comprehensive
> documentation and the functionality of the codebase. Both of them are
> interested in playing with graphics, but the hobbiest knows more about
> graphics and is mostly interested in how to translate some idea into an
> on-screen result.
>
> So the first thing I would put forward is that the GL SDK should serve the
> needs of both of these groups. There's enough overlap, particularly in the
> general code department, that serving both of their needs should be doable
> without much additional effort.
>
> So, given the needs of the above, I would put forth the following as a
> prioritized list of design goals:
>
>    1. Cross-platform. That's a given, as it is OpenGL's primary strength.
>    2. Simple. The code design should be written in a style that can be
>    understood.
>     3. Comprehensive. We should provide full coverage over OpenGL's
>    functionality. This means tutorials on lots of different aspects of GL,
>    appropriate base code support, etc.
>    4. Well Documented. All code needs to have clear documentation about
>    every function, object, etc.
>    5. Easy-to-"Install". I'm not necessarily suggesting a packaged
>    installer (though I wouldn't be against it), but the library should be
>    something that can be easily installed onto a system. And, most importantly,
>    *compiled*. Generally, that means no *external* dependencies; that
>    means we ship the library with any actual dependencies (if we use libpng, we
>    ship our lib with a version of libpng, etc).
>     6. Functionality. To the extent that the prior goals are followed, we
>    should provide a base code that gives reasonably comprehensive functionality
>    to the user.
>
> So, what do you think?
>
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-- 
Henri 'henux' Häkkinen