Re: [Graphics] OpenGL code integration

[Michael Goffioul]

On Wed, Feb 6, 2008 at 11:48 AM, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:
> I suppose they should only be loaded if they will be used, so they
> probably belong in a .oct file.  Or is it necessary to have
> graphics.cc include gl-render.h?  If so, how would a user be able to
> extend the graphics system with their own graphics backend without
> recompiling Octave?

graphics.cc does not depend on the rendering code (the inverse is
of course true).

If the code is put into an oct-file, I see several potential
issues that need to be addressed (in the context of an external
backend that would use the rendering code):
1) at link-time, the backend wants to link against the oct-file,
which would be placed in a non-standard location; in the context
of Windows, you have the additional problem that code needs to
be linked to an import library file (and not the executable file), but
these import library files are not installed for oct-files
2) at run-time, you somehow have to load manually the rendering
oct-file before the external backend oct-file, because the rendering
oct-file would not be installed in a location that can be found
automatically by the dynamic loader (PATH under Windows,
LD_LIBRARY_PATH under Linux); who would be responsible for
that?

Michael.