Re: [Visualpython-users] libgtkgl.so.5 error

[Andy D. <dou...@la...>]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2002, Bruce Sherwood wrote:

> Presumably this is on Linux? Is there anyone among the VPython users that
> knows anything about Mesa? I gather it is supposed to be an alternative to
> OpenGL, but the overview at the Mesa web site implies that one should not
> expect it to work the same. Since the VPython Visual module interfaces to
> OpenGL, not Mesa, is there any reason to think that it should work with
> Mesa?

It'll probably work on Mesa.  I have gotten it to work somewhat with
Mesa, but frame refreshes are erratic.  It's not clear if this is a
separate threading issue or a Mesa issue or what.  I plan to try
re-installing with a 2.4.x kernel and see what I get.

The Mesa folks have traditionally been quite careful to respect SGI's
copyright and trademark claims on OpenGL, and to be quite clear that Mesa
is not an offical OpenGL product.  I think that attitude comes through 
clearly in the overviews and other documentation that comes with Mesa.
Sometimes too clearly, but they really do want to be careful and explicit
and not mislead anyone.

That said, they work very very hard to make it compatible with OpenGL, so
I'd expect it to work.

    Andy Dougherty		dou...@la...
    Dept. of Physics
    Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042