title: Why does OpenGL use degrees instead of radians?
body: <p>The OpenGL designers were never afraid of mathematics, and knowledge of linear algebra is essential for all but the simplest OpenGL applications. I think it can safely be assumed that OpenGL programmers are familiar with angles in radians.</p>
  
  <p>Mathematically, radians are more elegant than degrees in every respect. They also have practical advantages:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>The C standard library uses radians.</li>
  <li>Pretty much any other library out there uses radians as well.</li>
  <li>Radians are more convenient in some computations, e.g. the length of a circular arc.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Why, then, did the OpenGL designers decide to specify functions like <code>glRotatef</code> and <code>gluPerspective</code> to use degrees?</p>
  
  <p>(I know it's of no practical importance, and it's not going to change anyway. I'm just curious, and I couldn't find the answer on OpenGL.org.)</p>