| GLUT
is the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. GLUT is good for learning OpenGL since it is platform
independent, and you don't have to worry about Windows programming. The same program
should compile under Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc. GLUT applications compile as console
applications so you can jump right in and start trying things out. The only drawback
of course is no system specific windows components such as menus, buttons, etc.
you can still however use the keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, etc. for user input.
GLUT also has it's own menu system which will be covered. Since
GLUT is platform independent the natural language to choose is ANSI C, and for
Windows of course, Pelles
C. In this tutorial I will show you how to set up Pelles
C for programming in GLUT and also show some sample code. Before
you begin you will need the GLUT header and library files, glut32.lib, glut.lib
and glut.h. I have a download available here that my code samples are tested with: http://www.trajectorylabs.com/OpenGL/GLUT.ZIP
These files are from the OpenGL SuperBible book 3rd Edition CD. The very latest
Win32 GLUT files can be found here: http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html
My code however is not guaranteed to work with anything other than the files I
have supplied. Once
you have downloaded the header and library files add them to the proper Pelles
C directories as shown: PellesC\Lib\Win\glut32.lib PellesC\Lib\Win\glut.lib PellesC\Include\Win\gl\glut.h Now
fire up Pelles C and start a new Win32 program (EXE) as a new workspace. Select
File - New - Source code and paste the code below. //--------------------------------------------------------------------- //
Getting Started with OpenGL GLUT // A Very Simple OpenGL Example // //
Draws a simple window with a rectangle in it //--------------------------------------------------------------------- #include
<windows.h> #include <gl\gl.h> #include <gl\glut.h> void
init(void); void display(void); int
main (int argc, char **argv) { glutInit(&argc, argv); glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE
| GLUT_RGB); glutInitWindowSize(250, 250); glutInitWindowPosition(100, 100); glutCreateWindow("My
First OpenGL Application"); init(); glutDisplayFunc(display); glutMainLoop(); return
0; } void
init(void) { glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0); glColor3f(0.0, 0.0, 1.0); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glOrtho(-10.0,
10.0, -10.0, 10.0, -10.0, 10.0); } void
display(void) { glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); glRectf(-5.0, 5.0, 5.0,
-5.0); glutSwapBuffers(); } //--------------------------------------------------------------------- Save
the code as myfirst.c and add it to your project. Now we just need to set up our
Project options. Under Project - Project Options - Linker - Library and object
files add glut32.lib and glut.lib. Under Subsystem Type select Console.
Under Compiler - Calling convention select __cdecl. Do a File Save all. 

Under
Project, Compile, Build then Execute. You should have a beautiful black screen
with a blue square on it! If
you receive an error that you are missing glut32.dll you can download it
here. Place it in your windows/system32 directory. 
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