Subject: GL & Rend386

From: [email-masked] (Technically Sweet)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 92 10:14:44 PDT

It's not so much compatibility with GL, but that GL
is very pleasant to code with in C.

This is because you build tree-shaped data/action structures
in GL, and it's natural to do this with the block-structured
coding structure in C.  I.e. instead of saying:
	x = make an A
	y = make a B
	z = make a C
	x.left = y
	x.right = z
	y.point = (1,2);
	z.point = (3,4);
you say:
	make an A
	{
		left(make a B)
		point(1,2)
		right(make a C)
		point(3,4)
	}
	close the current A

The context of what A and B and C and how they go together
is matched by the C coding structure, which you are used
to tracking because of your practice in coding.  
You don't have to declare x,y,&z and do the variable accesses.
GL tracks these variables for you on a hidden stack,
and the stack pushes/pops are obvious from the code flow.

We hard-core C coders have certain thought patterns and
habits that we're very good at, and the GL style exploits these.

Lance Norskog