GLFW 2.7.6 source distribution
- Introduction
- Compiling GLFW and the example programs
- Installing GLFW
- Using GLFW
- Version history
- Directory structure of the GLFW distribution
- Contacting the project
- Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Welcome to version 2.7.6 of the GLFW library. GLFW is a free, Open Source,
multi-platform library for OpenGL application development that provides a
powerful API for handling operating system specific tasks such as opening an
OpenGL window, reading keyboard, mouse, joystick and time input, creating
threads, and more.
GLFW 2.7 is expected to be the last major release of the 2.x series, with
most development now being done on what will become version 3.0.
This release adds support for joysticks on Mac OS X, a graphical joystick
test, support for 64-bit builds using MinGW-w64 and fixes for a number of bugs
in 2.7.5.
For a full list of changes, see the
version history.
2. Compiling GLFW and the example programs
A top level makefile can be found in the root directory of the GLFW
distribution that has been designed to work with several compilers. If you
simply enter the GLFW root directory in a shell and type make
(or
nmake
, mingw32-make
, gnumake
,
gmake
or something else, depending on your development
envronment), and a list should appear with the currently supported options for
systems and compilers.
For example, one of the options is to compile GLFW for Windows using MinGW
and MSYS. To do this, use:
make win32-msys
This will compile the GLFW static library and DLL as well as the supplied
example and test programs.
Currently supported compilers and systems are:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 and 2010
- MinGW with or without MSYS
- MinGW cross-compilation for Unix-like systems
- OpenWatcom for Windows
- Unix or Unix-like systems running the X Window System
- Apple GCC or Clang on Mac OS X
There are also project files available for Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 and
2010 in the support/msvc90
and support/msvc100
directories.
If your compiler/system is not in the list, you may have to create new
makefiles in the lib\win32
, lib/x11
or
lib/cocoa
directory, and in the examples
directory.
If you have any problems, please use our
support forum
and
bug tracker
on SourceForge.net. We would like to support as many systems as possible, so if
you had to make any modifications or additions to the source and/or makefiles
in order to make GLFW compile successfully, we would very much like to know
what you had to do.
2.1 Microsoft Windows
When building GLFW as a DLL (dynamic link library), all compilation units
need to have the GLFW_BUILD_DLL
macro defined. All build methods
listed below already does this, but you need to do it yourself if you are
making a custom build. Without this macro, the GLFW DLL will not export
functions correctly and code calling the DLL will be incorrectly generated.
2.1.1 Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 and 2010
Project files for both the static and dynamic versions of the GLFW library
are provided in the support/msvc90
and
support/msvc100
directories.
2.1.2 MinGW on Windows
GLFW can be compiled using only
MinGW. Open a Windows command prompt,
enter the root directory of the GLFW source distribution and use the
win32-mingw
target:
mingw32-make win32-mingw
2.1.3 MSYS and MinGW on Windows
If you have both MinGW and MSYS
installed, a better alternative is to use the built-in MSYS support. Open an
MSYS shell, enter the root directory of the GLFW source distribution and use
the win32-msys
target:
mingw32-make win32-msys
2.1.4 Cygwin's MinGW on Windows
GLFW can be cross-compiled to native Win32 code using the MinGW packages in
Cygwin (the newer mingw-
packages, not the older gcc-mingw-
ones). Open a Cygwin shell,
enter the root directory of the GLFW source distribution and use the
cross-mgw
target:
env TARGET=i686-pc-mingw32- make cross-mgw
This results in binaries that are functionally identical to those produced
by the other MinGW variants, i.e. they will use msvcrt.dll
as libc
and will have no dependency on Cygwin.
2.1.5 MinGW cross-compilation for Unix or Unix-like systems
Some Unix-like systems have a MinGW cross-compilation package for compiling
native Win32 binaries, for example the mingw32
package on Debian
GNU/Linux and its derivatives. You can use this to build Win32 binaries of
GLFW and all examples without having to run Microsoft Windows or even Wine.
Use the regular make program with the cross-mgw
target. You may
also need to adjust the TARGET
environment variable, depending on
how packagers named the binaries.
2.1.6 OpenWatcom on Windows
GLFW can be compiled using OpenWatcom
for Windows by running the following in the GLFW root directory:
nmake MAKE=nmake win32-ow
Also make sure that you have all your environment variables set up
correctly. It is the default option when installing OpenWatcom to permanently
set up all the required environment variables. If nmake
is
unavailable, you probably have to run WATCOM\setvars.bat
from the
command prompt first, where WATCOM
is the directory in which you
installed OpenWatcom (e.g. C:\Watcom
).
2.2 X11 on Unix-like systems
Compiler and link library capabilities are auto-detected with a script
called compile.sh
. Note that you don't need to run this script
yourself, as it is run automatically by the top-level makefile when necessary.
It has been tested on FreeBSD and many Linux distributions and should hopefully
run correctly on the majority of available Unix-like systems.
If you wish to customize the compilation or link flags for GLFW, set the
CFLAGS
or LFLAGS
environment variables as needed
before building the library. These flags will be picked up and added to the
generated Makefile.x11
files.
If you wish to use a certain compiler, set the CC
environment
variable before building the library. This will also be stored in the
generated Makefile.x11
files.
If you have already configured your source tree, you can reset it to an
un-configured state by running make with the x11-dist-clean
target.
If you are making your own build setup for GLFW, you need to be aware of the
various preprocessor symbols that the bundled makefiles use to enable various
features and code paths. They need to be defined either on the command-line or
at the very beginning for each GLFW source file with an x11_
prefix.
Note that the X11 port of GLFW compiles on Mac OS X, but is currently unable
to open a window when running against X11.app, due to Apple's incomplete
implementation of GLXFBConfigs.
_GLFW_USE_LINUX_JOYSTICKS |
Use the Linux joystick API. This is the only supported API for the X11
port. Without it, joystick input will be unavailable. |
_GLFW_HAS_XRANDR |
Use the X Resize and Rotate extension for display mode changes. This is
the preferred method. |
_GLFW_HAS_XF86VIDMODE |
Use the Xf86VidMode extension for display mode changes. This is a
fall-back method. |
_GLFW_HAS_PTHREAD |
Use the POSIX Threads API for threading. This is the only supported API
for the X11 port. Without it, threading will be disabled. |
_GLFW_HAS_SCHED_YIELD |
Call the sched_yield function inside glfwPlatformSleep . |
_GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESS |
Use the glXGetProcAddress function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
_GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESSARB |
Use the glXGetProcAddressARB function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
_GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESSEXT |
Use the glXGetProcAddressEXT function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
_GLFW_HAS_DLOPEN |
Use dlopen on the OpenGL shared library to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. This is a fall-back method. |
_GLFW_HAS_SYSCONF |
Use the sysconf API to find the number of processors. |
_GLFW_HAS_SYSCTL |
Use the sysctl API to find the number of processors. |
2.3 Apple GCC or Clang on Mac OS X
To compile GLFW for Mac OS X, you will need to have installed the Developer
Tools. A version of these tools can be found on your Mac OS X disc, with newer
versions available from the Apple Developer Connection site. When they are
installed, simply open Terminal and go to the root GLFW directory. From there,
you can build the library and all the examples by running make with the
appropriate target, i.e.:
make cocoa
The default compiler for the Cocoa port of GLFW is cc
, which as
of Mac OS X 10.6 still defaults to GCC, but you can override this using the
CC
environment variable. For example, to build GLFW using Clang,
use:
env CC=clang make cocoa
There is also a deprecated Carbon port of GLFW, which is limited to
32-bit code and only runs well on Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4. However, if you
need to build applications for those systems, it is a better choice than
the Cocoa port, which uses APIs unavailable on systems older than 10.5.
3. Installing GLFW
3.1 Windows
After compiling GLFW with MinGW or Cygwin, three files of interest should
have appeared in the lib\win32
directory. They are:
libglfw.a
(the static link version of GLFW), glfw.dll
(the DLL version of GLFW) and libglfwdll.a
(the DLL import
library).
To install GLFW on Cygwin (and possibly MinGW), run make with the
cygwin-install
target. This will generate the pkg-config file and
copy it, the header file and the library to the correct locations of your
Cygwin installation. If you wish to change the installation location from its
default, set the desired prefix path with the environment variable
PREFIX
.
If you used Borland C++ Builder, LCC-Win32, Microsoft Visual C++ or
OpenWatcom, the files are named glfw.lib
(the static link version
of GLFW), glfw.dll
(the DLL version of GLFW) and
glfwdll.lib
(the DLL import library).
The static link library and the DLL import library should be copied to your
compiler's LIB
directory (where all other link libraries are
located). The DLL can be copied either to your Windows system directory (where
opengl32.dll is located), or to the project directory of your GLFW-based
projects (where you place your executable files).
You should also copy the GLFW include file, include\GL\glfw.h
,
to the GL
directory of your compiler's include directory (i.e.
where gl.h
, glu.h
etc. are located).
3.2 Unix
After compiling GLFW, three files named libglfw.pc.in
,
libglfw.a
and libglfw.so
should have appeared in the
lib/x11
directory. This is the pkg-config template file, the GLFW
static link library and the GLFW shared library, respectively.
To install GLFW onto your system, run make as root with the
x11-install
make target. This will install the pkg-config file, the
static library and the header. By default, the files will be installed under
/usr/local
. If you wish to install to a different location, set the
PREFIX
environment variable appropriately when running make.
Note that the shared library is not installed by default, as you really
should think twice before using it. GLFW is very small and shared library
distribution on Unix outside of packaging systems is quite tricky. The GLFW
license also allows static linking without requiring you to share your
code.
However, if you're a *nix distribution packager, use a language binding or
for some other reason wish to install the shared library along with the rest,
run make with the x11-dist-install
target.
3.4 Mac OS X
After compiling GLFW, three files named libglfw.pc.in
,
libglfw.a
and libglfw.dylib
should appear in the
lib/cocoa
directory. This is the pkg-config template file, the GLFW
static link library and the GLFW dynamic library, respectively.
To install GLFW onto your system, run make with sudo and the
cocoa-install
build target, i.e.:
sudo make cocoa-install
This will install the pkg-config file, the static library and the header. By
default, the files will be installed under /usr/local
. If you wish
to install to a different location, set the environment variable
PREFIX
appropriately when running make.
Note that the shared library is not installed by default, as you really
should think twice before using it. GLFW is very small and very suitable for
static linking. The GLFW license also allows static linking without requiring
your to share your code.
4. Using GLFW
There are two aspects to using GLFW:
- How does the GLFW API work
- How to compile programs that use GLFW
The first point is covered in the
GLFW Users Guide and the
GLFW Reference Manual, and we suggest that you
read at least the Users Guide, since it's a good introduction to the GLFW
API.
Designing and compiling programs that use GLFW is not very difficult.
A few rules for successfully designing GLFW-based programs are presented
in the following sections.
4.1 Include the GLFW header file
In the files of your program where you use OpenGL or GLFW, you should
include the GL/glfw.h
header file, i.e.:
#include <GL/glfw.h>
This defines all the constants, types and function prototypes of the GLFW
API. It also includes the OpenGL and GLU header files, and defines all the
necessary constants and types that are necessary for these headers to work on
that particular platform.
For example, under Microsoft Windows you are normally required to include
windows.h
before you include GL/gl.h
. This would
however make your code dependent on the Windows platform, or at least require
your program to check which platform it is being compiled on.
The GLFW header file takes care of this for you, not by including
windows.h
, but rather by itself duplicating the necessary parts of
it. This way, the namespace won't be cluttered by the entire Windows API.
By default, the regular gl.h
OpenGL header is included. If you
wish to include the draft gl3.h
header instead, define
GLFW_INCLUDE_GL3
before the inclusion of the GLFW header.
By default, the glu.h
GLU header is included. If you wish to
avoid this, define GLFW_NO_GLU
before the inclusion of the GLFW
header.
In other words:
- Do not include
gl.h
or glu.h
yourself, as GLFW does this for you
- Do not include
windows.h
unless you need
direct access to the Windows API
- If you do include
windows.h
, do it
before including GL/glfw.h
. The GLFW header will
detect this and act appropriately.
Also note that if you are using an OpenGL extension loading library such as
GLEW, you should include the GLEW
header before the GLFW one. The GLEW header defines macros that
disable any gl.h
that the GLFW header includes and GLEW will work
as expected.
4.2 Link with the right libraries
4.2.1 Windows static library
If you link with the static version of GLFW, it is also necessary to
link with some system libraries that GLFW uses.
When linking a program under Windows that uses the static version of GLFW,
you must also link with the following libraries: opengl32
,
user32
and kernel32
. Some of these libraries may be
linked with by default by your compiler. In the table below you can see the
minimum required link options for each supported Windows compiler (you may want
to add other libraries as well, such as glu32
):
Compiler |
Link options |
Borland C++ Builder |
glfw.lib opengl32.lib |
Cygwin |
See Unix static library below |
LCC-Win32 |
glfw.lib opengl32.lib |
Microsoft Visual C++ |
glfw.lib opengl32.lib |
MinGW and MinGW-w64 |
-lglfw -lopengl32 |
OpenWatcom |
glfw.lib opengl32.lib user32.lib |
4.2.2 Windows DLL
To compile a program that uses the DLL version of GLFW, you need to
define the GLFW_DLL
constant. This can either be done with a
compiler switch, typically by adding -DGLFW_DLL
to the list of
compiler options. You can also do it by adding the following line to all your
source files before including the GLFW header file:
#define GLFW_DLL
When linking a program under Windows that uses the DLL version of GLFW,
the only library you need to link with for GLFW to work is glfwdll
.
In the table below you can see the minimum required link options for each
supported Windows compiler (you may want to add other libraries as well,
such as opengl32
and glu32
):
Compiler |
Link options |
Borland C++ Builder |
glfwdll.lib |
Cygwin |
-lglfwdll |
LCC-Win32 |
glfwdll.lib |
Microsoft Visual C++ |
glfwdll.lib |
MinGW and MinGW-w64 |
-lglfwdll |
OpenWatcom |
glfwdll.lib |
4.2.3 Unix static library
GLFW supports
pkg-config,
and a libglfw.pc
file is generated and installed when you install
the library. For systems that do not provide pkg-config, you should look in
this file for the proper compile and link flags for your system, as determined
by compile.sh at compile time.
A typical compile and link command-line when using the GLFW static library
may look like this:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --static --libs libglfw`
When using the GLFW sharedd library it may look like this:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --libs libglfw`
If you use GLU functions in your program you should also add
-lGLU
to your link flags.
4.2.5 Mac OS X static library
When compiling and linking a program under Mac OS X that uses GLFW, you
must also link with Cocoa and OpenGL frameworks.
If you are using Xcode, you simply add the GLFW library libglfw.a
and
these frameworks to your project. If, however, you are building your program
from the command-line, there are two methods for correctly linking your GLFW
program.
GLFW supports
pkg-config, and a
libglfw.pc file is generated and installed when you install the library. You
can find pkg-config in most packaging systems, such as
Fink and
MacPorts, so if you have one of them
installed, simply install pkg-config. Once you have pkg-config available, the
command-line for compiling and linking your program is:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --libs libglfw`
If you do not wish to use pkg-config, you will need to add the required
frameworks and libraries to your command-line using the -l
and
-framework
switches, i.e.:
cc -o myprog myprog.c -lglfw -framework Cocoa -framework OpenGL -framework IOKit
Note that you do not add the .framework extension to a framework when adding
it from the command-line.
These frameworks contain all OpenGL and GLU functions, so there is no need to
add additional libraries or frameworks when using GLU functionality. Also note
that even though your machine may have Unix-style OpenGL libraries, they are for
use with the X Window System, and will not work with the Mac OS X native
version of GLFW.
5. Version history
v2.7.6
- [Cocoa] Added joystick support (backported from 3.0)
- [Cocoa] Added new joystick test (backported from 3.0)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Fullscreen windows with OpenGL 3.2 core contexts failed to open
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The cursor position incorrectly rounded during conversion
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Cursor positioning led to nonsensical results for fullscreen windows
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The GLFW window was flagged as restorable
- [Win32] Bugfix: A test was missing for whether all available pixel formats had been disqualified
- [Win32] Bugfix: Entering locked cursor mode caused cursor movement to be reported to the mouse position callback
- [Win32] Bugfix: Setting the cursor position caused cursor movement to be reported to the mouse position callback
- [Win32] Bugfix: A .def file using
__stdcall
naming conventions was used for the 64-bit DLL on MinGW-w64
- [Win32] Bugfix: A superfluous link flag prevented tests and examples from being built for 64-bit on MinGW-w64
- [X11] Bugfix: The VirtualBox OpenGL implementation does not set the window bit for GLX framebuffer configs
v2.7.5
- [Cocoa] Replaced
NSDate
time source with mach_absolute_time
(backported from 3.0)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: A header needed for
MAXPATHLEN
on some systems was not included
v2.7.4
- [X11] Bugfix: The library containing
clock_gettime
was not detected
- [X11] Bugfix: The POSIX monotonic clock was detected using a non-POSIX macro
- [Cocoa] Replaced deprecated Core Graphics event suppression call
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The
GLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE
window parameter was always zero
- [Cocoa] Bugfix:
glfwInit
changed the current directory without a bundle resource directory (backported from 3.0)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix:
glfwInit
created a non-interactive menu bar (backported from 3.0)
- [Carbon] Bugfix: The
GLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE
window parameter was always zero
- [Win32] Bugfix: The
GLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE
window parameter was always zero
v2.7.3
- Added
GLFW_INCLUDE_GL3
macro for including the new gl3.h
instead of gl.h
- Bugfix: The returned desktop mode did not reflect the display mode as it was before the window was opened.
- Bugfix: The reference manual did not note that
glfwSetMousePosCallback
and glfwSetMouseWheelCallback
called the new callback before returning
- [X11] Added the POSIX
CLOCK_MONOTONIC
time source as the preferred method (backported from 3.0)
- [X11] Bugfix: Added missing
Requires:
line to pkg-config file generation
- [X11] Bugfix: Threading link flags were discarded before pkg-config file generation
- [X11] Bugfix: A synchronization point necessary for jitter-free locked cursor mode was incorrectly removed
- [Cocoa] Added
cocoa-dist-install
install target, intended for packagers and language binding creators
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Permitted requests for OpenGL 3.0 and 3.1 despite the 3.2 context being forward-compatible
- [Win32] Added Visual C++ 2010 project files for the GLFW tests and examples
- [Win32] Replaced Cygwin cross-compile support with MSYS support due to clearer separation between Cygwin and MSYS
- [Win32] Bugfix: Alt+F4 hot key was not translated into
WM_CLOSE
v2.7.2
- Added library version check to dynamic linking test
- [Cocoa] Added support for OpenGL 3.2 core profile in 10.7 Lion and above
- [Cocoa] Made relevant
CFLAGS
overridable
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The OpenGL framework pointer was not retrieved, making
glfwGetProcAddress
fail
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The Cocoa layer was not notified that the application may be multithreaded
v2.7.1
- Clarified language in the Reference Manual concerning window hint resetting
- Bugfix: The OpenGL profile and forward-compatibility window parameters were not set
- Bugfix: The default OpenGL version in the
version
test was set to 1.1
- Bugfix: The FSAA test did not check for the availability of
GL_ARB_multisample
- Bugfix: The window could be left in a closed state but still be flagged as open
- Bugfix:
glfwGetWindowSize
did not check whether GLFW was initialized or whether the window was open
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The loop condition for saving video modes used the wrong index variable
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: The iconified and active window states were not tracked
- [X11] Cleaned up depdendencies for
libglfw.pc
file
- [X11] Bugfix: The
dlopen
fallback method for glfwGetProcAddress
had been broken by unrelated edits
- [X11] Bugfix: Calling
glXCreateContextAttribsARB
with an unavailable OpenGL version caused the application to terminate with a BadMatch
Xlib error
- [X11] Bugfix:
GLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE
was honored in fullscreen mode
- [Win32] Added Visual C++ 2010 project files for the GLFW DLL and static library to the
support/msvc100
directory
- [Win32] Enabled
_GLFW_NO_DLOAD_GDI32
and _GLFW_NO_DLOAD_WINMM
for the DLL build
- [Win32] Bugfix:
compile.bat
used Unix-style line endings
- [Win32] Bugfix: The
WGLSWAPINTERVALEXT_T
, WGLGETEXTENSIONSSTRINGARB_T
and WGLGETEXTENSIONSSTRINGEXT_T
typedefs were declared under WGL_ARB_pixel_format
- [Win32] Bugfix: The array for WGL context attributes was too small and could overflow
- [Win32] Bugfix: Context creation using profiles did not check for the availability of
WGL_ARB_create_context_profile
- [Win32] Bugfix: Context recreation logic was overly conservative, leading to unnecessary recreations
- [Win32] Bugfix: Window focus was not handled correctly when using
glfwInconifyWindow
v2.7
- Added
GLFW_OPENGL_VERSION_MAJOR
and GLFW_OPENGL_VERSION_MINOR
hints for versioned context creation
- Added
GLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT
hint for forward compatible context creation
- Added
GLFW_OPENGL_DEBUG_CONTEXT
hint for debug context creation
- Added
GLFW_OPENL_PROFILE
hint for context creation using profiles
- Added
GLFW_NO_GLU
macro for disabling the inclusion of the GLU header by the GLFW header
- Added platform-independent pixel format selection (not used on Mac OS X)
- Added support and symbols for several additional keys, including Windows/Command keys, Pause, Caps Lock and Menu
- Added conservative value clamping to
glfwOpenWindowHint
- Added a number of test programs mostly useful to developers of GLFW
- Added error messages and graceful failure to example programs
- Added Cocoa port for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and later
- Added vsync to all relevant example programs
- Added a rudimentary OpenGL 3.2+ core profile example program
- Updated Pascal (formerly Delphi) bindings to support more compilers
- Clarified and expanded the User's Guide and Reference Manual
- Fixed a number of compiler warnings in the example programs
- OpenGL version is now only parsed once, at window creation time
- Changed
glfwSwapBuffers
to call glfwPollEvents
after buffer swap
- Changed all comments in public header file to plain C style
- Removed the
keytest
example program, as it was superseded by the events
test
- Removed deprecated AmigaOS and DOS ports
- Removed all FPS counters from example programs
- Removed all unmaintained language bindings
- Removed support for Pelles C
- Removed broken Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 build path
- [X11] Added
x11-dist-install
install target, intended for packagers of GLFW
- [X11] Added
x11-dist-clean
build target, intended for developers of GLFW
- [X11] Added support for
GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
- [X11] Added support for user-specified compilation flags via
CFLAGS
- [X11] Added documentation of configuration macros
- [X11] Implemented support for
GLFW_SYSTEM_KEYS
- [X11] Improved configuration and makefile creation logic
- [X11] Removed support for GLX version 1.2 and below
- [X11] Removed unnecessary calls to XSync
- [X11] Removed use of legacy window style atoms
- [X11] Bugfix: Repeated keys would sometimes leak through despite key repeat being disabled
- [X11] Bugfix: Fullscreen window resizing would cause color buffer clearing without taking framebuffer objects into account
- [X11] Bugfix: AltGr was not reported as right Alt
- [X11] Bugfix: Window colormap was not freed
- [X11] Bugfix: Close callback was called for
glfwCloseWindow
- [X11] Bugfix: Misspelt struct member in XF86VidMode code path
- [X11] Bugfix: Window decorations would not appear using certain versions of Compiz on Intel hardware
- [X11] Bugfix: Numeric keypad key symbols would change depending on Num Lock state
- [X11] Bugfix: Hidden cursor position snapped back when halfway from window center to edge
- [X11] Bugfix: Not properly verifying that the window was mapped before making certain calls caused a
BadMatch
error
- [X11] Bugfix: The response to
_NET_WM_PING
events was malformed
- [X11] Bugfix: Hidden cursor mode interfered with other applications when GLFW window was unfocused
- [X11] Bugfix: The invisible cursor objects used for hidden cursor mode were not freed
- [X11] Bugfix: EWMH-compliant window managers were incorrectly detected
- [X11] Bugfix: The EWMH code path for fullscreen windows did not present the window using
_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
- [X11] Bugfix: The EWMH code path for fullscreen windows did not send a
_NET_WM_STATE
client message
- [Carbon] Added Universal Binary build targets for all examples
- [Carbon] Renamed MacOSX port to Carbon
- [Carbon] Removed support for 10.2 Jaguar
- [Carbon] Deprecated Carbon port
- [Carbon] Bugfix: Using the Dock or menu Quit command did not call the close callback
- [Carbon] Bugfix: Key repeat events were not caught on 10.5 Leopard
- [Carbon] Bugfix: Certain keys were not reported
- [Carbon] Bugfix: Missing
-m32
flag caused build failure on 10.6 Snow Leopard
- [Carbon] Bugfix: Missing
-mmacosx-version-min
flag caused build failure on 10.5 Leopard
- [Carbon] Bugfix:
glfwOpenWindow
did not call glClear
- [Win32] Added Visual C++ project files for all examples and test programs
- [Win32] Removed iterative context re-creation attempts for FSAA sample count
- [Win32] Bugfix: The Visual C++ GLFW DLL project file did not use the correct DEF file
- [Win32] Bugfix: WGL extensions were not detected and/or used correctly
- [Win32] Bugfix: Improper use of wParam for
WM_SYSCOMMAND
- [Win32] Bugfix: Derivatives of stream.c were not cleaned up by compile.bat
- [Win32] Bugfix: Pointer for
GetExtensionsStringARB
was not initialized
- [Win32] Bugfix: Makefiles contained the wrong GLFW API version
- [Win32] Bugfix: Numeric keypad key symbols would change depending on Num Lock state
- [Win32] Bugfix:
DllMain
performed a number of forbidden actions (by calling glfwTerminate
)
v2.6
- Added
GLFW_FSAA_SAMPLES
multisampling hint
- Added
GLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE
hint for non-resizable windows
- Added install targets for all Unix-like build targets
- Added
glfwReadMemoryImage
function for creating a GLFWImage
object from an image file in a memory buffer
- Added
glfwLoadMemoryTexture2D
function for decoding an image file in a memory buffer into a texture
- Added
glfwLoadTextureImage2D
function for loading a GLFWImage
object into a texture
- Added cross-compilation support for MinGW under a Unix-like host
- D bindings updated and all examples ported to modern D
- Delphi bindings updated to reflect API additions
- Bugfix: The interaction between key repeat and window focus code caused duplicate presses
- Bugfix: The mouse position was not properly updated when re-enabling the mouse cursor
- [Win32] Added pkg-config file generation for Cygwin
- [Win32] Added version number to window class name
- [Win32] Added optional loading of user provided window icon resource
- [Win32] Bugfix: Very small sleep periods were forced to higher value
- [Win32] Bugfix: The nmake makefile did not handle paths with spaces correctly
- [Win32] Bugfix: Removed assembly RDTSC timing code
- [Win32] Bugfix: Hidden cursor was not clipped to windowed windows
- [X11] Added XRandR code path for fullscreen windows
- [X11] Added building of shared library
- [X11] Added ICCCM WM fullscreen hints
- [X11] Added support for the
_NET_WM_PING
protocol
- [X11] Added pkg-config file generation
- [X11] Added setting of WM size hints
- [X11] Bugfix: Removed assembly RDTSC timing code
- [X11] Bugfix: Window re-opening now works properly (including fullscreen windows)
- [X11] Bugfix: Potential crash bug in video mode matching code
- [X11] Bugfix: Static buffers imposed an invisible limit on reported video mode count
- [X11] Bugfix: Interaction with certain window managers when setting input focus would cause termination with a BadMatch error
- [X11] Bugfix: Keypad keys did not trigger the character callback
- [MacOSX] Added pkg-config file generation
- [MacOSX] Added building of shared library
- [MacOSX] Added building of Universal Binary libraries
- [MacOSX] Replaced fullscreen code path with CGL version
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Binaries without bundles or resource forks now interact properly with the WM
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Replaced Carbon event time source with
gettimeofday
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Added code to minimize the dreaded OpenGL application startup jump
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Fixed broken implementation of
glfwSetMousePos
for windowed mode
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Fixed broken implementation of hidden cursor
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Capturing all displays and not just the main one
- [AmigaOS] Obsoleted platform due to lack of maintainer and community interest
- [DOS] Obsoleted platform due to lack of maintainer and community interest
v2.5
- Added the function glfwWaitEvents
- Added window close callback, which enables a program to prevent a user
from closing a window with the window manager
- Added window refresh callback, which is called when the window needs
to be refreshed
- Added support for loading alpha textures (GLFW_ALPHA_MAP_BIT)
- Added support for the Lua programming language
- Added support for the D programming language
- Added support for the Pelles C compiler for Windows
- Added API level support for up to eight mouse buttons
- [Win32] Added support for up to five mouse buttons
- [Win32] Mouse down events capture mouse input
- [Win32] Bugfix: The DLL now exports glfwSetTime
- [Win32] Fix: The GLFW window is now placed in the upper left corner
of the desktop working area
- [Win32/X11] Bugfix: More robust check for SwapInterval
- [X11] Added support for USB joysticks under Linux (/dev/input/js*)
- [X11] Bugfix: Added support for GLX extensions in glfwExtensionSupported
- [X11] Bugfix: More robust fullscreen mode (?)
- [X11] Bugfix: Runtime check of XF86VidMode support for the active
display
- [X11] Bugfix: Some mouse button events were reported incorrectly
- [MacOSX] Added support for the input char callback.
- [MacOSX] Added video mode validation and duplicate elimination.
- [MacOSX] Switched to a new MakeBundle.sh script.
- [MacOSX] Added emulation of the window refresh callback.
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: The window and its associated resources are now
properly released.
- [MacOSX] Bugfix: Removed support for more than eight mouse buttons.
- [x86 CPUs] Improved Intel mobile CPU detection (e.g. disables RDTSC
timing on Centrino systems)
v2.4.2
- Preliminary native Mac OS X support (via the Carbon interface)
- Preliminary DOS support (DJGPP + Mesa)
- Changed license to the zlib license (almost identical to the previous
GLFW license), so now GLFW is OSI Certified
- Rewrote the GLFW documentation in LaTeX, meaning several improvements
(both visual and practical)
- Added the
support
folder to the distribution, which includes
support for various languages
- [Win32] Added OpenWatcom compiler support (thanks Sebastian
Schuberth!)
- [Win32] Changed fallback timer from GetTickCount to timeGetTime,
which usually provides better resolution
- [Win32] Bugfix: Accumulator buffer selection should be more
robust
- [Win32] Bugfix: If stereo rendering is requested, and no stereo pixel
format could be created, glfwOpenWindow now fails
- [Win32] Bugfix: glfwSetWindowSize now sets the size of the client
area, NOT the entire window, meaning that there is a 1:1 relationship
between glfwSetWindowSize and glfwGetWindowSize
- [X11] Added FreeBSD and QNX support
- [X11] Added support for non-pthread capable systems
- [X11] Hopefully more robust configuration script (compile.sh)
- [X11] Bugfix: When mouse cursor is hidden, mouse sensitivity is no
longer degraded
- [X11] Bugfix: Source files EOL was PC style (CR/LF) in v2.4.1 (blame
my WinCVS configuration)
- [X11] Bugfix: When a GLFW window is closed, input focus is properly
released
- [X11] Bugfix: Iconification of fullscreen windows should now work
properly
- [x86 CPUs] Improved RDTSC timing (e.g. RDTSC support on single-CPU
Intel Hyper-Threading enabled systems)
- [AmigaOS] Added joystick support
- [AmigaOS] Mouse cursor positioning is now implemented
- [AmigaOS] Added support for Geek Gadgets GCC
- [AmigaOS] Bugfix: glfwGetWindowParam now returns proper values for
all parameters (except for GLFW_ACCELERATED)
v2.4.1
- Added AmigaOS support (preliminary)
- GLFW for the X Window System now works under Mac OS X
- [Win32] Bugfix: glfwWaitCond treated the timeout as milliseconds
instead of seconds
- [X11] Bugfix: GLFW should now compile under IRIX v5.3
- [X11] Bugfix: GLFW should now compile with Kylix
v2.4
- Major source code rearrangement - much code is now shared between
different platforms, and it should be easier to port GLFW to new
platforms
- Added a Unicode keyboard text input interface (CharCallback)
- Keyboard key input is now slightly more internationalized: GLFW now
uses 8-bit ISO-8859-1 encoding for keys representing printable
characters (e.g. "Ö", "§", etc), as
opposed to the previous 7-bit US-ASCII encoding
- Added more key constants (F13-F25, keypad '=')
- Added an enable/disable swicth for automatic event polling from
glfwSwapBuffers
- [X11] Added support for sysctl for querying the number of processors
in the system (if POSIX sysconf is not supported)
- [X11] Bugfix: compile.sh now works with Sun sh (and hopefully others
too)
- [X11] Bugfix: compile.sh now detects the need for -ldl when dlopen is
used
- [Win32] Bugfix: When closing a fullscreen window under Win 9x/NT4,
the task bar icon now disappears properly
- [Win32] Bugfix: GLFW should now compile on a wider range of MSVC
compilers (e.g. .NET) - Thanks Tim Little!
v2.3.2
- Removed the silly limitation of 100 threads (the thread information
is now kept in a linked list)
- General source cleanup (window state is now kept in a single
struct, plus some other minor changes)
- [X11] Added Solaris gethrtime() support (not tested yet), which
should give an improved timer for Sun/Solaris stations
- [X11] Some fixes to the 'compile.sh' script (-O for non-gcc compilers
and 'make x11-gcc' should now really force GCC)
v2.3.1
- [X11] A minimalist configuration script was added that solves the
issue with glXGetProcAddressARB, and unifies all Unix/X11 Makefiles
into one template Makefile (well, one for GLFW, and one for the
examples)
v2.3
- Added OpenGL stereo rendering support
- Added a function for parsing the OpenGL version string
(glfwGetGLVersion)
- [x86] Bugfix: Hopefully the CPU core clock dependent timer RDTSC will
never be used on CPUs with variable core frequencies anymore
- [X11] Bugfix: GLFW could create stereo rendering capable windows,
even if it was not requested (GLFW v2.2.x did not support selection
of stereo rendering)
- [X11] Bugfix: glfwGetProcAddress returned NULL on most systems (even
on those that supported glXGetProcAddressARB). Now GLFW assumes that
glXGetProcAddressARB is supported on all systems, which solves the
bug, but may result in compiler errors on some systems (please let me
know if you have any related problems).
v2.2.3
- Bugfix: Checking for GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap is more robust
- Bugfix: glfwLoadTexture2D will now fail if no window is opened
- [Win32] Bugfix: Right shift was not detected under Win 9x/ME (it is
still not as good as under NT/2K/XP, but at least you get right
shifts)
- [X11] Bugfix: Visuals are now selected more accurately. For instance,
glfwOpenWindow will no longer fail if you request a 24-bit color
buffer if only 16-bit color visuals are available (which means that
pong3d should work on 16-bit displays).
v2.2.2
- [Win32] Bugfix: Windows did not always get focus (this was a tough
one!)
- [Win32] Bugfix: glfwGetWindowParam did not work with
GLFW_ACCUM_*_BITS or GLFW_AUX_BUFFERS
- [X11] Bugfix: Linux joystick Y axis positions were reversed
v2.2.1
- [X11] Added joystick support for Linux
v2.2
- Added joystick support (only supported under Windows so far)
- Added joystick controls to pong3d.c (only 3 more lines of code)
- Added glfwOpenWindowHint() function
- It is now possible to specify a desired vertical monitor refresh
rate (for fullscreen windows)
- It is now possible to request an accumulator buffer and auxiliary
buffers
- Added glfwSetTime() function
- Added a GLFW conversion of the MESA/GLUT gears.c demo to the example
programs
- [Win32] gdi32.dll and winmm.dll are now loaded dynamically when
glfwInit() is called. This means that there is no need to link with
gdi32.lib or winmm.lib when using the static version of GLFW, which
should make GLFW usage more convenient.
- [Win32] Bugfix: Greatly improved keyboard input (detect left/right
CTRL etc)
- [Win32] Bugfix: glfwExtensionSupported now detects all WGL extensions
(e.g. WGL_ARB_pbuffer)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Mouse cursor was not re-hidden when a GLFW window was
deselected and then selected again (with ALT+TAB)
- [X11] Bugfix: Minor bug in the SGI timer - and ugly (unintended) SGI
timer debug info removed
- [X11] Bugfix: glfwGetDesktopMode and glfwGetVideoModes no longer give
segmentation faults if no X server is available
v2.1
- Added image and texture loading capabilities (support for the TGA
file format at the moment)
- Added a new example program (mipmaps.c) for showing off the automatic
mipmap generation and texture loading capabilities of GLFW 2.1
- Removed the separate TGA loader (tga.c in the examples directory)
since texture loading is supported natively by GLFW. Also updated the
Pong3D demo to use GLFW texture loading instead of tga.c.
- Improved keyboard handling (e.g. numeric keypad keys can be
detected)
- Added a new example program, keytest.c
- Changed the GLFWvidmode structure and the corresponding API functions
to report pure color bits instead of the confusing (and unportable)
"BPP" field
- Changed glfwSetWindowSize so that it operates in fullscreen mode
too
- Added mouse wheel support under Windows (not Win95) and X11
- Added window iconification functions (glfwInconifyWindow and
glfwRestoreWindow)
- Improved iconification and deactivation handling under both Windows
and X11
- Made it possible to turn on/off key repeat (the default is now no key
repeat)
- Added SGI hardware timer support (CLOCK_SGI_CYCLE) for improved
timer resolution for SGI computers
- Added support for the free Borland C++ Builder 5.x compiler for
Windows
- Made it possible to compiler GLFW as a Windows DLL using any of the
supported compilers
- Some constants have changed names (e.g. GLFW_REDBITS is now called
GLFW_RED_BITS)
- Updated GLFW documentation (GLFW Users Guide and GLFW Reference
Manual) to reflect the changes in the API
- [Win32] Bugfix: Corrected Cygwin toplevel makefile entry
- [Win32] Bugfix: Fixed event lag bug
- [Win32] Bugfix: Fixed Radeon 8500 crash
- [X11] Bugfix: Fixed the window close bug
- [X11] Bugfix: Iconification/deactivation is now detected
- [X11] Bugfix: Non-OpenGL visuals are not listed anymore
- [XFree86] Bugfix: Undesired video mode changes are now prevented
v2.0.3
- Added precise CPU cycle based timing support (RDTSC) for x86
CPUs (under both Windows and Unix)
- Added a makefile option for building for Windows with Cygwin
- Corrected the CC for Unix/X11 makefiles (-Wall is usually not a
supported flag for CC, so it was removed from the CFLAGS list)
v2.0.2
- Added a makefile option for building for X11 with 'cc' rather than
'gcc' (useful for IRIX users for instance).
- [Win32] Bugfix: Mouse coordinates are now relative to the window
upper left corner, which also means that disabling the mouse cursor
in windowed mode should work much better.
- [X11] Bugfix: Added a bunch of more keys that are recognized by
GLFW.
- [X11] Bugfix: glfwGetNumberOfProcessors now works for IRIX (earlier
versions of GLFW would not compile under IRIX).
v2.0.1
- glfwTerminate() will now be called automatically upon normal program
termination (using atexit())
- [Win32] Bugfix: Buffer-swapping did not work if a window lost
focus.
- [Win32] Bugfix: Top level Makefile did not work under Windows
9x.
- [Win32] Bugfix: NULL declaratoin in glfw.h was not MSVC 7.x
compatible.
- [X11] Bugfix: GLFW would not build with C++ (e.g. g++).
v2.0
- GLFW is no longer a single source file, but an entire link library.
- Added multi threading support.
- Added more window control.
- New distribution layout (both Win32 and X11 version in same archive).
- Added GLFW Users Manual and GLFW Reference Manual as PDF files.
- Some bugfixes.
v1.0.2
- Improved fullscreen functionality.
- Added fullscreen support for X11.
v1.0.1
- Added support for the X Window System.
- Fixed bugs.
v1.0.0
- First release.
- Only supported Windows.
6. Directory structure of the GLFW distribution
Here is an overview of the directory structure of the GLFW distribution:
docs | | GLFW manuals in PDF format |
examples | | Several example programs in C |
include | | |
GL | | Here is the GLFW C/C++ include file |
lib | | The source code for GLFW |
cocoa | | Mac OS X/Cocoa specific implementation |
win32 | | Windows specific implementation |
x11 | | Unix/X11 specific implementation |
support | | |
d | | D support |
msvc90 | | Project files for Visual C++ 2008 |
msvc100 | | Project files for Visual C++ 2010 |
pascal | | Pascal support |
tests | | Several test programs in C |
7. Contacting the project
The official website for GLFW is glfw.org.
It contains the latest version of GLFW, news and other information that is
useful for OpenGL development.
If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a
user's web forum,
and a
user's mailing list
on SF.net, and the registered IRC channel #glfw
on
Freenode.
If you have a bug to report, a patch to submit or a feature you'd like to
request, please file it in one of the
GLFW trackers on SF.net.
Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of
GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, we have a
developer's mailing list,
or you could join us on #glfw
.
8. Acknowledgements
GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent
their skills. Special thanks go out to:
- artblanc, for a patch replacing a deprecated Core Graphics call
- Bobyshev Alexander and Martins Mozeiko, for the original proposal of
an FSAA hint and their work on the Win32 implementation of FSAA
- Keith Bauer, for his invaluable help with porting and maintaining GLFW on
Mac OS X, and for his many ideas
- Jarrod Davis, for the Delphi port of GLFW
- Olivier Delannoy, for the initial implementation of FSAA support on
X11, cross-compiling support for MinGW and general extreme usefulness
- Paul R. Deppe, who helped with Cygwin support, and made an
adaption of PLIB
so that it can use GLFW (instead of GLUT)
- Jonathan Dummer, for submitting a patch fixing an input bug on Win32 and
adding logic for the GLFW_ICON resource
- Gerald Franz, who made GLFW compile under IRIX, and supplied patches
for the X11 keyboard translation routine
- Marcus Geelnard, the original author and long-time maintainer of GLFW,
without whose brilliant work none of this would have happened
- Stefan Gustavson, for quick and thorough testing of GLFW on many and
varied operating systems and hardware configurations
- Sylvain Hellegouarch, for support, bug reports and testing
- Alex Holkner, for writing the code from which the Compiz/Intel fix was
stolen
- Toni Jovanoski, for helping with the MASM32 port of GLFW, and
supplying the example program and fixed OpenGL and GLU bindings for
MASM32
- Cameron King, for reporting a hidden cursor mouse bug on X11
- Peter Knut, for his many and detailed reports of difficult to find input
bugs
- Robin Leffmann, for his work on Mac OS X and other platforms, and his
invaluable support
- Glenn Lewis, for helping out with support for the D programming
language
- Shane Liesegang, for providing a bug fix relating to Cocoa window
restoration
- Tristam MacDonald, for his bug reports and feedback on the Cocoa port
- David Medlock, for doing the initial Lua port
- Kenneth Miller, for his many and detailed bug reports on Win32
- Jeff Molofee, the author of the excellent OpenGL tutorials at NeHe Productions.
Much of the Windows code of GLFW was originally based on Jeff's
code
- Douglas C. Schmidt and Irfan Pyarali, for their excellent article
Strategies for Implementing POSIX Condition Variables on Win32
- Sebastian Schuberth, for the OpenWatcom makefiles
- Matt Sealey, for helping with the MorphOS port
- Steve Sexton, for reporting an input bug in the Carbon port
- Dmitri Shuralyov, for support, bug reports, bug fixes and testing
- Daniel Skorupski, for reporting a bug in the Win32 DEF file
- Bradley Smith, for his updates of the D support and his ports of the
remaining examples to the D language
- Julian Squires, for submitting a patch for a bug in the key repeat logic on X11
- Johannes Stein, for maintaining the Pascal bindings
- Sergey Tikhomirov, for the initial implementation of joystick support on
Mac OS X
- Samuli Tuomola, for support, bug reports and testing
- Frank Wille, for helping with the AmigaOS port and making GLFW
compile under IRIX 5.3
- Yaniel, for fixing a bug with fullscreen windows using OpenGL 3.0 contexts on Cocoa
- Santi Zupancic, for support, bug reports and testing
- Lasse Öörni, for submitting patches for the input code of the Win32 and X11 ports
- Дмитри Малышев, for the idea of a GLFW_NO_GLU macro
- blanco, for submitting a patch for a deprecation bug in the Cocoa port
- heromyth, for reporting a bug in the D bindings
- Ozzy @ Orkysquad,
for his dedication to GLFW, for debugging my source, and for his
valuable experience with game development
- Peoro, for reporting a bug in the
_NET_WM_PING
response
- TTK-Bandit, for submitting a number of input patches adding many missing
keys to the Win32 and X11 ports
- yuriks, for reporting a bug in Win32 context creation
- All the unmentioned and anonymous contributors in the GLFW community, for
bug reports, patches, feedback and encouragement
- OpenGL.org, and all the people on
the discussion forums there that have provided help during the development of
GLFW