scodil wrote:
I'll chime in with a "me too". I use Haskell and OpenGL for prototyping
scientific visualization software, 3D models and such. Not that I think it
couldn't be used for production software, its just that I just don't produce
much :)
The library really is fantastic. I don't think it gets enough fanfare. The
only
other GL API that rivals it is the C API itself. Most other languages
provide a
shoddy & incomplete interface to that, instead of an idiomatic
interpretation of the OpenGL spec. I can't think of a single language, not
even
python, whose OpenGL bindings come close.
I get the impression (from a inadequate sample of irc logs and list chatter)
that many Haskellers see HOpenGL as 'just an OpenGL binding', like it was
readline or curses or something. It just plugs a hole in the Haskell/OS
interface, and its worth is merely a function of the size and importance of
that hole. Instead I advocate, as Claus and others have done, that it's a
shining example of how to write a Haskell interface to a well known API.
If you never used C OpenGL and learned GL using Haskell, you might not
notice
anything special about it. But that's kind of my point, its just so damn
good
it blends into the background. The only people who notice this, I think, are
experienced C OpenGL programmers, and the overlap between them and the
Haskell
community in general is small I bet. Their voice in that community smaller
still.
This probably has little bearing on the issue of whether to keep or drop
HOpenGL in the near future, but I think that if 'the community' (or whoever
has
a say in these things) like the style of HOpenGL, and want to encourage
bindings to be written in that style, they should place the library
prominently
in the pantheon of Haskell libs. Demoting it has the opposite effect.
Anyway, I just wanted to take advantage of a rare opportunity to sing its
praise.
I have nothing to add except... what a great post. Thanks for being both
enlightening and eloquent.
Simon
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