pango experts: need suggestions

[walter tallent <w41t3r yahoo com>]

Hello.
I'm writing an opengl program using gtkglext, and I
need to make some textures out of text.  I have the
example code that uses an FT_Bitmap and renders a FT2
font, but it doesn't recognize markup.  Here's my
goal:

I want to write text on the fly, preferably using
markup, and render it into a opengl texture with a
transparent background, that I can then use for a
heads-up display.  I don't want to have to worry if
the user is using tt or type1 or whatever fonts.

I've been browsing the pango reference, but frankly,
it doesn't say much about how to "use pango" (at
least, not enough for this newbie!)... just how to use
the functions.  What I need is a programmer's guide...
is there one?

Failing that, can someone suggest appropriate calls? 
Is pango high-level enough to not have to worry about
whethere the system running my app is using truetype
or type1 fonts?  I'd rather be as flexible as I can.

Sorry if this isn't a good description of what I'm
after.  I'm happy to give more info if needed.  I
didn't want to be verbose...

Pointers to other documentation are also welcome.

thanks
walter

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