Deprecated functions

[paulbanks]

Not sure whether this is the right section but here goes.
I am planning on developing an application that should run on older systems with gpu's that support up to version 2.1
In the latest version functions such as glpushmatrix are deprecated, does that mean I should avoid using it entirely ?

[Zyx_2000]

You should avoid most deprecated functions, ESPECIALLY immediate mode (glBegin/glVertex etc).

[menzel]

Depends, do you want to port your code to MacOS? Smartphones? Do you optionally support newer features than OpenGL 2.1? Do you want shadersor just fixed functions?

[paulbanks]

In the future I might port it to macos and linux.
I want to mainly work with shaders but not go through making custom matrices and multiplying them if possible.

[menzel]

You can use deprecated functions and stick with OpenGL 2.1, even on MacOS. But it's not possible to mix newer functionality with the old 2.1 deprecated stuff on Mac. That's why i'm asking. Also OpenGL ES 2 for Smartphones lacks much of the fixed function stuff that is deprecared/not part of core profile in newer OpenGL versions.
I wouldn't recomment to learn the outdated stuff in 2012 anymore, the day will come when you want to use a newer feature or port your app to a core-only system and then you will have to start all over again.
But is it possible to stick with the old stuff of GL 2.1? Sure.

[paulbanks]

Alright, thanks for the suggestion.