[GtkGLExt] Module proposal: GtkGLExt for GNOME 2.22 (fwd)

[Andreas Røsdal <andreasr gnome org>]

Hello,

I have proposed GtkGLExt as a new GNOME module. This is because I've 
noticed that the module is no longer maintained, and that I think 
development could continue with GtkGLExt as a new GNOME module.

Let me know that you think, and if you're interested in helping out with 
this change for the project. AFAIK, the first step that needs to be taken 
is to migrate the development of GtkGLExt to the GNOME infrastructure.

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2007-September/msg00282.html

- Andreas R.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:57:54 +0200 (CEST)
From: Andreas Røsdal <andreasr gnome org>
To: desktop-devel-list gnome org
Subject: Module proposal: GtkGLExt for GNOME 2.22

Hello!

* Proposal: Include GtkGLExt in the GNOME developer platform.

* Purpose: GtkGLExt is an OpenGL extension to GTK+ 2.0, and if accepted into 
the GNOME developer platform could provide OpenGL support for any GNOME 
application where this is useful. Language bindings available for C, C++, 
Python, Scheme, Ruby, DUI, Inti, Perl, FreePascal.

GtkGLExt website: http://gtkglext.sourceforge.net/

* Dependencies:
- GTK+ 2.0
- OpenGL or Mesa
- GTK-Doc (optional)

* Resource usage: I suggest to migrate from the current sf.net project to GNOME 
FTP, GNOME SVN, GNOME bugzilla.

* Adoption: Fedora, Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions already include 
GtkGLExt.

* GNOME-ness: Both GNOME and GtkGLExt has a lot to gain by such an inclusion. 
GtkGLExt could benefit from the GNOME infrastructure, GNOME QA and release 
process, and increased development effort (improvements, bugfixes, 
documentation, i18n etc). GNOME would be enriched with the benefits of a good 
OpenGL extension for GTK+.

* "Election speech":

GtkGLExt is the best currently available OpenGL extension for GTK+ 2.0.
By accepting GtkGLExt into the GNOME development platform, this will give 
GtkGLExt increased development resources, more wide usage and availability, so 
that it will become the leading library for providing OpenGL support in GNOME 
applications.

GtkGLExt is stable and works well: There has been some effort to integrate 
gtkglarea into GTK+, but nothing has come of it yet.
The Clutter library is quite immature and not as widely adopted yet.
This proposal is therefore to incrementally improve GtkGLExt, rather than a 
more difficult solution where something has to be invented from scratch.

However, GtkGLExt is currently unmaintained. I will volunteer to maintain it if 
accepted as a GNOME module, and hope to work with the GNOME community to make 
it fit in well as a GNOME module.

For an example of a successful GNOME project using GtkGLExt, take a look at 
glChess. I co-maintained this module, and saw what GtkGLExt could do there. A 
challenge we had with using GtkGLExt was that it isn't a "blessed" external 
library, so it had to be optional (a runtime check in Python) if it could be 
used in the GNOME module GNOME Games. glChess allows rendering the chess board 
with GtkGLExt, see: http://live.gnome.org/glChess/

There has also been a lot of discussion about this in bug #119189
"Add OpenGL support to GTK+".

I'm very interested in seeing how GtkGLExt can improve GNOME!