   What Lib to use for small GL test
  I need a way to create a window and draw with open gl calls there.Since this needs to be portable (linux / windows) I need some library that handles that.First I thought about SDL but this thing is somehow very annoying since it is not meant to be used in that way.An alternative I was aware of is the discontinued glut and the freeglut lib.But is there something else? It does not need to support some abstract layer, it is really needed for open gl code prototyping.   
  Check out  this thread ;  SDL seems to be the right choice here.  What is the problem that you are having when using SDL?   ;  First, some advertising: http://libwm.googlecode.com - Libwm is a new library for windowing and rendering context management for OpenGL, with OpenGL 3 support and more.Now for the competitors: SDL, GLFW, GLUT, SFML, ClanLib. Google for the home pages.-Riku;  You didn't specify a programming language, any preferences?For C/C++, I'm partial to GLFW.For C#, OpenTK is a good choice for rapid prototyping (yes, it's cross-platform, you don't even need to recompile between platforms).For Python, check out PyGame.;  ThanksSDL just doesn't fit into my rapid prototyping. I need to access the gl layer to use all gl* commands since I dont want to implement a "drawLine" with arbitrary thickness values.I am happy with freeglut atm since its very straightforward for my purpose. Going to replace SDL since it even has some low level text function. I tried several SDL extensions and none gave me the ability to dump sth onto the screen that quick. I will take a look at GLFW, thanks for that. As a matter of size for those tiny apps I am not keen on setting  up OSG, Qt or similar.Please feel free to explain to me how to use SDL with native GL calls without grabbing window handle and forcing to use this as a gl context   ;  Maybe this is a good starter for you.   ;  I don't know how simple using SFML is across different platforms, but it's pretty easy on Windows. It's what I am currently using for any OpenGL related work. I've not had any problems with the OpenGL specific stuff of the library.Tutorial - Window - Using OpenGL example code (so you don't have to download it and open externally):////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Headers////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////#include <SFML/Window.hpp>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Entry point of application////// \return Application exit code///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////int main(){    // Create the main window    sf::Window App(sf::VideoMode(800, 600, 32), "SFML OpenGL");    // Create a clock for measuring time elapsed    sf::Clock Clock;    // Set color and depth clear value    glClearDepth(1.f);    glClearColor(0.f, 0.f, 0.f, 0.f);    // Enable Z-buffer read and write    glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);    glDepthMask(GL_TRUE);    // Setup a perspective projection    glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);    glLoadIdentity();    gluPerspective(90.f, 1.f, 1.f, 500.f);    // Start game loop    while (App.IsOpened())    {   // Process events   sf::Event Event;   while (App.GetEvent(Event))   {  // Close window : exit  if (Event.Type == sf::Event::Closed) App.Close();  // Escape key : exit  if ((Event.Type == sf::Event::KeyPressed) && (Event.Key.Code == sf::Key::Escape)) App.Close();  // Resize event : adjust viewport  if (Event.Type == sf::Event::Resized) glViewport(0, 0, Event.Size.Width, Event.Size.Height);   }   // Set the active window before using OpenGL commands   // It's useless here because active window is always the same,   // but don't forget it if you use multiple windows or controls   App.SetActive();   // Clear color and depth buffer   glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);   // Apply some transformations   glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);   glLoadIdentity();   glTranslatef(0.f, 0.f, -200.f);   glRotatef(Clock.GetElapsedTime() * 50, 1.f, 0.f, 0.f);   glRotatef(Clock.GetElapsedTime() * 30, 0.f, 1.f, 0.f);   glRotatef(Clock.GetElapsedTime() * 90, 0.f, 0.f, 1.f);   // Draw a cube   glBegin(GL_QUADS);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f,  50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f,  50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f, 50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f,  50.f, 50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f,  50.f, 50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, -50.f, 50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f,  50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f,  50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(50.f,  50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f(50.f,  50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(50.f, -50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, -50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, -50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, 50.f,  50.f);  glVertex3f(-50.f, 50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, 50.f, -50.f);  glVertex3f( 50.f, 50.f,  50.f);   glEnd();   // Finally, display rendered frame on screen   App.Display();    }    return EXIT_SUCCESS;}As you can see, you use the GL API directly, so that should work for your requirements. Be sure to read the "Getting started" tutorials for your platform and compiler so the library can be setup correctly!   ;  Great, thx! This tutorial is far better than anything on the libsdl homepageStrsnge that it didnt work for me before (the cause why i switched to glut)but as far as I can see there is no straightforward way of displaying text, right?   ;  Yes, there is: http://www.sfml-dev.org -> Tutorials -> Graphics package -> Displaying text