| [platform-swt-dev] SWT and OpenGL |
Hi all,I have already asked that question in the newsgroup, but I want to ask you here and explain why this question is important to me:
SWT currently provides a small layer (GLCanvas) for enabling OpenGL based applications. Within that canvas, 3rd party libraries like JOGL or LWJGL can be used to produce 3D output based on OpenGL. I'm using that feature within GEF3D. Maybe you have read about GEF3D, it has recently become an Eclipse project (in the incubator phase, of course, see http://eclipse.org/gef3d). You will find more information at http://gef3d.org .
In the context of the IP, all GEF3D related code has to be approved. Unfortunately, the OpenGL wrapper I'm currently using, was not approved: LWJGL, see https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2817 for details. Another OpenGL wrapper, JOGL, is currently checked: https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2840 . One problem (of both libraries) is the SGI Free Software License, which is used by some OpenGL parts.
Since SWT also uses parts of OpenGL, I'm wondering if you have already stumbled over that license problem. Of course, there is no OpenGL header file in the CVS, but at least it is needed to compile some native parts. Probably the same is true for the 3rd party libraries? (I'm not an OpenGL not a license expert, I have simply used the wrapper libraries)
Unfortunately, there are also other legal problems with LWJGL and JOGL, and I'm running out of options. My plugin cannot be used without at least one OpenGL wrapper, and it would be very uncomfortable to provide a plugin and let people download and install other required stuff somewhere else.
Before Eclipse 3.2., there was that Eclipse Open GL wrapper org.eclipse.opengl.GL. Is this wrapper deprecated and replaced by GLCanvas (and the possibility to use a 3rd party library)? Are there any plans to "revive" that wrapper? This would be a solution for my problem, since then I wouldn't need a 3rd party library at all.
Cheers, Jens