OpenGL Windowing Library for 2009

Question

Trying to decide on a library for creating a window and capturing user input for my OpenGL app, but there are just way too many choices:

• GLUT (win32)
• Free

Answer 1

GLUT and the other GLUT alternatives should not be used in any sort of production application. They are good for putting together a quick demo application or to try something out, but not for much more than that.

If you're trying to make an OpenGL game, I'd recommend SDL. It focuses more on gaming needs. It most definitely can be used with OpenGL. A brief google for "SDL OpenGL" turned up this link on how to initialize OpenGL with SDL. Enabling OpenGL should also enable hardware rendering with the GPU.

Qt is a reasonable alternative, but it's better if you want to embed OpenGL within a larger, desktop application (think 3D modeling, CAD/CAM, medical visualization, etc) where you need access to standard OS widgets for the UI.