   Comparing opengl libraries like glut and others
  Well since i havent worked in some time in opengl or coding for any sort i was researching most stuff over again to get myself up to speed, so i was going to ask the community what are the common things now, i mean normaly i know most ppl use or used GLUT for easy opengl development but with all the lastest developments in hardware and such does GLUT has gone a bit outdated or is still good to use in big projects or complicated stuffs like new terrain rendering, images, effects and such? is there anything new to use beside the new shading language opengl got out, or still using the opengl library with part of the glsl and such is the best way to go?   
  For the most part, people seem to have stopped using GLUT due to that fact that is outdated, no longer supported, and still hasn't been open-sourced by the developer.   ;SDL is probably your best bet for an easy way to get back into opengl programming.   ;GLUT-like Windowing, GUI, and Media Control toolkitsQuote:Original post by swordfish..., and still hasn't been open-sourced by the developer.GLUT is open source, you can download the sorce code from here:http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/;  That very page you link to contains the notice thatQuote:GLUT is not open source. Mark Kilgard maintains the the copyright. There are a number of newer and open source alternatives.The source is available, but depending on what you define "open source" to be, this may or may not qualify. The source code itself prominently displays the notice:Quote:/* This program is freely distributable without licensing fees    and is provided without guarantee or warrantee expressed or    implied. This program is -not- in the public domain. */A cursory glance over the source distribution did not reveal more specific licensing information (its not under the GPL or LGPL, for example). Not being a lawyer or particularly familiar with licensing issues, I can only assume this means that, while you can look at, and recompile, the GLUT library, you aren't really allowed to change it and redistribute it or call it your own.   ;  GLFW is an alternative to SDL that might be worth looking into. Drew Benton did a a comparison between the two which seems to be down now. Here is the google cache.;  ty for all the inputs they are really helpfull, but in this case what about not using a library at all, just using the opengl and thats all   ;  in that case you will have to come up with the window interface and input system yourself.To be honest, unless you have a specific reason for wanting todo that and all the work it requires I'd not bother and stick with one of the ones named above <pimp>or even take a look at my own window framework, which I admit is only Win32 compatible right now due to a lack of a linux box...</pimp>   ;  great ty i will see into one of this in any case any more inputs are welcome   ;  I run on a Mac, so comparissons come out slightly different.First off, GLUT is an imediate down, it is antique at this point, and requiring you to hand control of your program to a never-returning main loop is just plain nasty.SDL is quite nice, but window initialisation is very verbose, and I never use most of the other features (2D graphics, audio, etc.). It also lets you poll for input, and has full keyboard support (including international keyboards, and other mappings).GLFW is almost perfect as a windowing enviroment, except for one small flaw: it doesn't let you prevent the window from being resized by the user when in windowed mode (or even constrain the resize to a fixed aspect ratio). This is a real pain, as none of my projects let the user randomly mess with the aspect ratio).   