Pure Krome you are correct, doing a GLUT / Win32 lesson would be extremely foolish. If you want portability your best bet is to use GLUT since you don''t have to change anything other than your platform specific code for input, network, etc etc.

I think using Win32 for the tutorials is a very bad idea considering the audience they are aimed for. The tutorials are aimed at people who don''t know a thing about OpenGL and are kept very simple. What is the point of tossing complicated Win32 code at someone who is new? OpenGL.org is the perfect example of what is right to do when trying to teach people OpenGL. I''d guess that 90% or more of their sample code is written using GLUT and I feel it is the most useful collection of code out there. Even the more of the advanced sample code uses GLUT, its great. The code gets right to the point, showing how to use the OpenGL API, not how to interface OpenGL with Windows.

There is no solution to GLUT vs. Win32 API though. People will always keep their biases, even if they are founded on false facts and ideas. Ego also seems to be a problem as well, people think that if they use GLUT they will be seen as inferior coders which is silly. The thing I have learned from this thread is that people don’t take to time to research before they speak. It’s very amusing to see all of the people who don’t like GLUT, but have never even used it or taken the time to learn it.


Nate Miller
http://nate.scuzzy.net

Nate, would it be too forward of me to ask if i could bear your children?

Seriously though, I wholeheartedly agree with everything Nate has said so far. I like GLUT mostly for the very reason that it allows you to cut through the bullshit and go straight to using OpenGL to create some lovely eye candy. Simplicity is not always the way of the simpleton.

Tim... without wanting to sound offensive (and believe me, I respect your work and your opinion), but you really should take your head out of your arse before speaking... was it really necessary to throw out lines like "1000x more powerful"?
You use some classes to wrap up Windows functionality... how is that so different from GLUT?

With regard to pride... I also don''t see why GLUT is shunned as "the easy way". Nobody seems to have a problem with using things like STL and the like, or any other pre-fab classes, so why is it lame to let GLUT hide some API code so you can get busy with making your app cool rather than tossing around working out API bugs?

I guess its like Nate said... people will have their opinion, and will most likely defend it until they are blue in the face (and I guess I''m one of those people )

Adam


------------------------------------------------------
"You need a weapon. Look around you... can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?"
- Guy Fleegman, Security Officer, NSEA Protector