Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython on OSX

[Dethe E. <de...@li...>]

On 5/31/06, Jonathan Brandmeyer <jbr...@ea...> wrote:

> How much Cocoa code did you get done for VPython before you threw in the
> towel?  I can manage to beat on the autotools if you can supply the
> Cocoa code.

I got stuck at the getting it to compile phase.  My plan was to stub
out the functions that needed replacing, then fill them in with Cocoa
or Carbon as needed.  But I wanted it to compile first so I had a
baseline to test against, and I couldn't get that far.

> I did some PyOpenGL stuff quite recently.  Unfortunately, it is _much_
> too slow for VPython.

OK, well there are other paths to cross-platform OpenGL.  One would be
to use Glut for windowing instead of platform-dependant windows
(wouldn't help with integrating with other libraries, but wouldn't be
worse than what is there now), and posix for threading. Then it would
be usable across Linux and OS X without substantial changes, and
Windows too with the right libraries.

I don't know what you were trying with PyOpenGL, but a) I think the
speedups are on a branch, and may not have made it to Windows yet, and
b) moving as much as possible into display lists should be as fast os
OpenGL allows, regardless of whether the display lists were built from
python or C++.  Another option would be to build VPython on a rich 3D
scenegraph environment (preferably one that is already cross-platform)
such as Coin, Soya, etc. (Python has a richness of 3D environments).
Then VPython could be the easy path into 3D, but users could still
expand past it to do transparency, textures, etc.  Some of the 3D
stuff out there works with other windowing libraries (wx, PyGame)
which makes it easier to use VPython as a standard part of the python
toolbox.

Just my blue-sky ideas.  My department recently got purchased by a
company in Japan, so I'm busier than usual with work and travel, so it
will be some time before I have hobby coding time to spare,
unfortunately.

--Dethe