Does using GLUT benifit coding? Does it still have the same functionality of core openGL code or is it a begginers tool to create simple applications?
GLUT is parallel to OpenGL, and allows you to use it fully.
it does :
- windowing and events (creating opengl RC, window creation, mouse control, etc)
- some prebuilt 3D volumes but of course you are not forced to use them
Of course for a real game you’ll find some things lacking, especially for keyboard support, fullscreen resolution control etc, but all this does not belongs to OpenGL, but to the windowing API. For quick games I really like GLFW, simple effective and multiplateform http://glfw.sourceforge.net/
Basically starting with GLUT it quite easy, anyway if you need more control the switch to a more complex API won’t cost you much.