I posted this text as a follow-up to an earlier message of mine, however I want to pursue this concept so I think it should be its own thread.
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If OpenGL can be used for 2d graphics, has anyone tried using it for the foundation of a windowing system?
For instance, why or why not would it make sense to implement XWindows using OpenGL as the foundation?
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It was pointed out that ultimately OpenGL requires a native windowing subsystem as a foundation to work on.
It seems though that others have already pursued this concept as there is a toolkit for OpenGL called GLUI. Info here:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~rademach/glui/
Why don’t we have an open source layer below OpenGL that is native and provides a standard windowing interface on all platforms for OpenGL ( or any other future libraries )?
I think this layer would be relatively small. It would be just primitive functions and it knows about a platforms graphiccard device drivers.
If we had another open source layer below OpenGL that OpenGL could use as its windowing system then:
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We would not need different implementations of OpenGL, we could implement one source code implementation that could be recompiled on any system that uses this native windowing foundation.
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OpenGL could be brought to any operating system, not just those that have their own windowing systems.
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Operating System developers would no longer have to worry about implementing their own GUIs. They just implement this foundation layer, recompile OpenGL, and use all the future OpenGL windowing systems that people would write. Don’t like your windowing system? Swap it for another one. Want to use three different Windowing systems at once? No problem.
If someone who deeply understands the underpinnings of OpenGL could explain to me why this would or would not be sensible I would love to hear it.
Thank you!