Hi, Has anyone tried SDL? If so, what do you think of it. Is it worth the time to learn it? What''s its performance like? Does it really port that well? Please tell me anything else that you think is important. Thanks

Go here. Look at the number of multiplatform games and applications. Read the docs. Figure it out.

[soapbox]
I realize that the more "experienced" should encourage the "newbies", however I point to a tenet of internet etiquette: try before you cry . Try something out. Try to find a solution to your problem. If you fail or can't find the information you seek, people will be more willing to help you because you've shown that you take initiative and aren't just expecting to feed off the hard work of others.

I'm condemning no one, most especially not the poster, snowball123. This is general, generic advice that I wish more people would take.
[/soapbox]

Edited by - Oluseyi on July 3, 2001 7:45:42 PM

I understand what it does and what it''s used for. I''m simply trying to see if people think its worth the time to learn it rather than using a combination of OpenGL and OpenAL, mixing and matching other APIs, etc. I would like to hear what others say about it.


Your comment:
I realize that the more "experienced" should encourage the "newbies", however I point to a tenet of internet etiquette: try before you cry.

I don''t think I''m a newbie for asking others for their impressions about a somewhat new API. Jerk.

1) SDL isn''t that new. It''s at version 1.2.1, and in Open Source that says a lot.

2) I also said "I''m condemning no one, most especially not the poster, snowball123." Perhaps I shouldn''t have.

Furthermore, you can find tons of information from the mailing list archives or on IRC (the links are provided). In other words, if you''d exert yourself just the teensyiest bit, you''d find answers - because others have come before you and asked the same question.

"Jerk."

Don''t get it twisted - I ain''t mad. But I''ve seen this question and others just like it about every conceivable subject on every single mailing list and forum I''ve ever been on - even when there''s an FAQ or "For Beginners" area that addresses them. My point is that your question has been asnwered somewhere before, perhaps even on these forums. Why not look for them first (if you did, I apologize. Next time help us out by saying you''ve searched).

In any case, I''ve used SDL under both Linux and Win32 and it works like a charm. it''s plain C-style, but can be used natively with C++ and has bindings to tons of other languages (Perl, Python, Ruby, ML, Eiffel...) It''s OpenGL integration is improving every day and it''s an excellent abstraction layer for largely architecture independent coding (it handles endian-ness too). It features excellent performance (heck, you can use MFC in games - Andre LaMothe be damned) and is extremely simple to use.

For most applications porting is a question of a single rebuild. I haven''t ported to or from Mac before, and I''ve never programmed for it either so I have no idea how its directories are structured and files/data are access. If you use a portable compiler (gcc) and a fairly portable assembler (gas or NASM), keeping in mind that assembly isn''t architecture portable, then you''ll be fine with SDL.

''Nuff sed.

And a quick look through the forums will show that this kind of question has been answered fairly recently. It''s always worth browsing a little (or using the search function) to see if you can avoid re-asking a question.

I use SDL, and it seems ok.

Yep, for more comments you can hit the ''search'' button near the top right of this page. SDL has been discussed multiple times on this forum.

SDL seemed clean, light, and easy to use, but unfortunetly it could not use HW accelleration on my linux box, so that ended it for me.


Mike