For the next release (or as soon as possible), I would suggest adding a file parser for .x or .obj models, or a simple method of creating custom ones.
I also suggest adding a more object-style approach. I know that it is OO now, but I mean like an event handling capability, to handle spawning of, say, a bullet from a gun, or an effect when an object randomly hits a bush or water to create splashes, etc.
I haven’t check in a while, but is there a complete redbook version of C++, or another OpenGL guide that uses C++? If not, I would like to see one soon.
External data loading, let it be models, images or whatever, does not belong to OpenGL. OpenGL is a graphics rendering API and is not, and should not be, concerned about loading data, only rendering it. Search the forum, this have been suggested many times in the past.
Your OO suggestion lost me completely though. How do you mean an pure graphics rendering API should handle game-specific events, completely unrelated to the actual process of rendering?
And last, as far as I know, the code in the Red Book is valid C++ code, so why create a separate book for something that it already does? On the other hand, the purpose of the Red Book is to teach OpenGL, not teach C or C++. The OpenGL code should be easily translated to any language with OpenGL bindings, since the OpenGL code is (with the possible exception of how functions in gerenal are called) should be identical to that in the book.
If you have a problem adapting the code in the Red Book to more specific C++, then the problem is a more fudamental lack of programming skill and should be solved before diving into OpenGL.
To clarify a bit, OpenGL is not meant to be a full blown DirectX replacement. It is more like Direct3D.
As GL is for a wide range of hardware and OS, from Macs to mobile phones passing by PS3, it is important that the API bindings are easy to call from any langage to drive any hardware. OO can pose a problem with this.
About loading textures and models, it is more some glu or glut tools that should be added, to ease rapid development. As these have not evolved in years, the way to go is use some other libraries which are specialised in these multimedia operations such as SDL etc.