[PyOpenGL-Users] features from OpenGL > 1.1

[Andrew S. <and...@ad...>]

I'm trying to understand what/how/if PyOpenGL deals with multiple 
versions of OpenGL.  For example, if I run PyOpenGL on a machine with 
OpenGL 1.3 libraries, I should have multitexturing abilities built-in 
(e.g. glActiveTexture() function).  This is specified in the OpenGL 1.3 
spec:
http://www.opengl.org/developers/documentation/version1_3/glspec13.pdf

Another example is that with OpenGL 1.2, the GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE constant 
should be defined.

However, PyOpenGL doesn't provide these names in the GL module when run 
on an appropriate system.  I wonder if this is simply an oversight 
which would be easily fixed, a purposeful omission because runtime GL 
version checking and name exporting may be tricky, or has never been 
thought about.

Incidentally, on linux, I can get around the missing glActiveTexture() 
function by using ctypes to load the function. (On Windows, I get an 
error that the arguments must be 4 bytes longer...  I haven't tracked 
this down, though.) Another workaround is that some OpenGL 1.3 drivers 
(nVidia) still support the multitexturing ARB extension, but others 
(ATI) don't.  This success with ctypes and the continued good things I 
hear about Pyrex make me wonder if maybe the PyOpenGL build system 
could be simplified by getting away from SWIG and using these two 
technologies?

So, what's the story?  Anyone know?