Where did org.lwjgl.util.GL go in RC1?

[Nop]

All previous versions of LWJGL from 0.98 to beta4 did have a quite large class org.lwjgl.util.GL that is used by one of my libraries here.

It is missing from the lwjgl_util.jar in RC1. Where did it go?

[Matzon]

elias thought that it was just bloat (and I agree with him) so he pulled it - it was a convenience class added that just imported all GL classes. Ideally the developer should be aware of what extensions are being used. Unless people get really violent about this, I dont think it will return.

[Nop]

Well, the deal is this: My application needs quite a lot of text rendering and is using the shaven puppy game library (spgl) which does quite a good job of this. SPGL contains a class that is derived from the removed GL class, so it won't run with LWJGL RC1. As I am not the developer of that library, I have no idea what it is needed it for. It seems that the SPGL project has sort of died, I cannot find any current information and so it is unlikely that anybody is going to adapt it. But it is a pretty good library that has never given me any trouble for 2 years. By pulling one of its base classes, you probably are killing off the SPGL.

So to get out of this, I see only three possible ways:
1. Find a different text rendering library and do a major rewrite of my application's text and font management
2. Patch the missing classes back into lwgjl_util for every release you make until that does no longer work for some reason or the other
3. You put it back to maintain downward compatibility of LWJGL.

Naturally, I'd prefer to restore the class. I thought it was the idea of a RC1 to be as compatible as possible to the preceding betas. And now that you know it has been used for years you can't say the class is useless. :-)

[the2bears]

I'm using SPGL as well... so this makes a mess for me too.

Bill

[cornholio]

It seems that the SPGL project has sort of died, I cannot find any current information and so it is unlikely that anybody is going to adapt it.

then just add the old GL-class to the SPGL-source/-jar since there will be
no new releases of this library. if some day there is a new release it should
be working with the most current version of LWJGL.

[Nop]

then just add the old GL-class to the SPGL-source/-jar since there will be
no new releases of this library.

That's exactly the problem. Every user of SPGL will stumble over this problem, needs to find out the reason and the solution and patch his version of the SPGL.

It would be much more helpful to just restore the compatiblity of LWJGL.

[Matzon]

I'll sort something out with elias and/or cas regardning this for rc2

[elias]

One reason I removed it was because of bloat, as Matzon stated, but more importantly, the class had to be updated manually whenever a GL function or extension was fixed or added. Obviously, this was almost never done, and I chose to remove GL.java and GLImpl.java. Originally, those classes were autogenerated by some IDE (eclipse?), and if they are going back into lwjgl_util.jar, I'd need some way to auto-generate it from ant, or it'll never work. Since auto-generating the classes from ant seems unlikely to happen, I humbly propose a refresh of GL/GLImpl by the proper IDE and stuffing it in the SPGL jar. Or better yet, convert SPGL to use LWJGL directly.

All in all, I guess I'm pointing this at Cas

- elias

[princec]

I noticed this had broken so I fixed it in SPGL just before I released a pair of patches for Titan and Ultratron. SPGL isn't dead - never will be - it's live code, used in all my games. I only tweak it when I need it do so something different or something breaks!

Cas

[Orangy Tang]

Wow, a surprising amount of SPGL people comming out of the closet.

Incidentally, I've got my own fork of SPGL which I'm thinking of tidying up and releasing as a proper library (complete with documentation, examples, unit tests, etc.). Would anyone be interested in that? Which particular parts of SPGL are people using (I'm guessing font and sprite drawing is the most common stuff).

[the2bears]

Wow, a surprising amount of SPGL people comming out of the closet.

Incidentally, I've got my own fork of SPGL

Heh... mine's forked too   I think a common library (again) would be a good thing, between yours or Cas' or some mixture.

Bill

[Nop]

SPGL isn't dead - never will be - it's live code, used in all my games. I only tweak it when I need it do so something different or something breaks!

Good to hear. It's just that the sourceforge site looks pretty deserted. So where would you find the current version or hints about new changes? Anywhere outside the CVS?

[princec]

Generally only available in CVS... just hook up to sourceforge and keep it updated.

A few things really need sorting out in it... such as merging font rendering with the sprite engine for example - glyphs should be sprites.

Cas

[Nop]

It would be nice if you could give a small indication that the project is still alive once in a while in source forge news or forum or file releases or on the project web page that also is down.

As I said, from the looks of the site I took the project for dead. And someone looking for a library would likely not dare to use it in that state of missing information. Which would be a pity as it works quite well.

[princec]

Hm. Well, in truth I do very little work on it because I only tweak it when I need it to do something different It's very much alive though, it just doesn't change often.

Cas