[platform-swt-dev] Confusion about OpenGL and SWT

[Martin Johannesson <martin.johannesson@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I am a little bit confused about how to properly go about using OpenGL 
with SWT, and I was hoping that someone might be able to clear up a few 
key things for me.

(I am new to this mailing list, so I am sorry if this has been asked 
before. I have checked the mailing list archives and I did not find any 
answers.)

Unless I am mistaken, the GLCanvas class in the package 
org.eclipse.swt.opengl provides a widget which hosts an OpenGL context.

However, the org.eclipse.swt.opengl package does not seem to provide any 
functionality for actually drawing anything in the widget. For this 
purpose, I assume, an additional binding to the actual OpenGL API 
functions is needed?

The "Using OpenGL in SWT Applications" 
(http://www.eclipse.org/swt/opengl) web page states the following:

"org.eclipse.opengl is an experimental Java binding for OpenGL 1.1 and 
GLU built as an Eclipse plugin".

My interpretation of this is that I should use the 
org.eclipse.swt.opengl.GLCanvas class for creating a canvas widget and 
then use the org.eclipse.opengl.GL class to actually draw things in the 
widget. Is this correct?

If so, I still get confused by the last paragraph (about the 
org.eclipse.opengl binding) on the same page which states:

"Please note that this binding is experimental and subject to change. If 
you are using SWT 3.2 or newer then you should use the supported OpenGL 
binding that is included in the SWT package instead."

Is there a binding for the OpenGL 1.1 API functions for drawing, like 
for example glVertex3f(), already included in SWT? Do I not also need 
the org.eclipse.opengl package? The binding in SWT only seems to provide 
support for creating an OpenGL widget and I don't see a way to use it 
instead of (as opposed to "along with") the org.eclipse.opengl package.

Any hints would be appreciated.

--
Martin Johannesson