bindbc-glfw 0.2.0

bindbc-glfw

This project provides both static and dynamic bindings to the GLFW library. They are @nogc and nothrow compatible can be compiled with compatibility with -betterC. This package is intended as a replacement of DerelictGLFW3, which is not compatible with @nogc, nothrow, or -betterC.

Usage

By default, bindbc-glfw is configured to compile as a dynamic binding that is not -betterC compatible. The dynamic binding has no link-time dependency on the GLFW library, so the GLFW shared library must be manually loaded at runtime. When configured as a static binding, there is a link-time dependency on the GLFW library -- either the static library or the appropriate file for linking with shared libraries on your platform (see below).

When using DUB to manage your project, the static binding can be enabled via a DUB subConfiguration statement in your project's package file. -betterC compatibility is also enabled via subconfigurations.

To use GLFW, add bindbc-glfw as a dependency to your project's package config file. For example, the following is configured to GLFW as a dynamic binding that is not -betterC compatible:

dub.json

dependencies {
    "bindbc-glfw": "~>0.1.0",
}

dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-glfw" version="~>0.1.0"

The dynamic binding

The dynamic binding requires no special configuration when using DUB to manage your project. There is no link-time dependency. At runtime, the GLFW shared library is required to be on the shared library search path of the user's system. On Windows, this is typically handled by distributing the GLFW DLL with your program. On other systems, it usually means installing the GLFW runtime library through a package manager.

To load the shared library, you need to call the loadGLFW function. This returns a member of the GLFWSupport enumeration indicating that the library failed to load (it couldn't be found), one or more symbols failed to load, or a version number that matches a global enum value based on the compile-time configuration. (See the README for bindbc.loader for the error handling API.)

import bindbc.glfw;

/*
This version attempts to load the GLFW shared library using well-known variations
of the library name for the host system.
*/
GLFWSupport ret = loadGLFW();
if(ret != glfwSupport) {

    // Handle error. For most use cases, its reasonable to use the the error handling API in
    // bindbc-loader to retrieve error messages and then abort. If necessary, it's  possible
    // to determine the root cause via the return value:

    if(ret == GLFWSupport.noLibrary) {
        // GLFW shared library failed to load
    }
    else if(GLFWSupport.badLibrary) {
        // One or more symbols failed to load. The likely cause is that the
        // shared library is for a lower version than bindbc-glfw was configured
        // to load (via GLFW_31, GLFW_32 etc.)
    }
}
/*
This version attempts to load the GLFW library using a user-supplied file name.
Usually, the name and/or path used will be platform specific, as in this example
which attempts to load `glfw3.dll` from the `libs` subdirectory, relative
to the executable, only on Windows.
*/
// version(Windows) loadGLFW("libs/glfw3.dll")

By default, the bindbc-glfw binding is configured to compile a binding to GLFW 3.0. This ensures the widest level of compatibility at runtime. This behavior can be overridden via the -version compiler switch or the versions DUB directive.

It is recommended that you always select the minimum version you require and no higher. In this example, the GLFW dynamic binding is compiled to support GLFW 3.1.

dub.json

"dependencies": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "~>0.1.0"
},
"versions": ["GLFW_31"]

dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-glfw" version="~>0.1.0"
versions "GLFW_31"

With this example configuration, glfwSupport == GLFWSupport.glfw31. If GLFW 3.1 or later is installed on the user's system, loadGLFW will return GLFWSupport.glfw31. If only GLFW 3.0 is installed, loadGLFW will return GLFWSupport.badLibrary, meaning only GLFW 3.0 was loaded. In this case, it's still possible to call GLFW 3.0 functions, but any calls to GLFW 3.1 functions will result in a null pointer access. For this reason, it's recommended to required the version of the library you configured at compile time.

No matter which version was configured, the successfully loaded version can be obtained via a call to loadedGLFWVersion. The function isGLFWLoaded returns true if any version of GLFW was successfully loaded and false otherwise.

Following are the supported versions of GLFW and the corresponding version IDs to pass to the compiler.

Library & Version	Version ID
GLFW 3.0	Default
GLFW 3.1	GLFW_31
GLFW 3.2	GLFW_32

The static binding

The static binding has a link-time dependency on either the shared or static libraries for GLFW. On Windows, you can link with the static library or, to use the shared library (glfw3.dll), with the import library. On other systems, you can link with either the static library or directly with the shared library.

This requires the GLFW development package be installed on your system at compile time. When linking with the static library, there is no runtime dependency on GLFW. When linking with the shared library (or the import library on Windows), the runtime dependency is the same as the dynamic binding, the difference being that the shared library is no longer loaded manually -- loading is handled automatically by the system when the program is launched.

Enabling the static binding can be done in two ways.

Via the compiler's -version switch or DUB's versions directive

Pass the BindGLFW_Static version to the compiler and link with the appropriate library. Note that BindGLFW_Static will also enable the static binding for any satellite libraries used.

When using the compiler command line or a build system that doesn't support DUB, this is the only option. The -version=BindGLFW_Static option should be passed to the compiler when building your program. All of the required C libraries, as well as the bindbc-glfw and bindbc-loader static libraries must also be passed to the compiler on the command line or via your build system's configuration.

When using DUB, its versions directive is an option. For example, when using the static binding:

dub.json

"dependencies": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "~>0.1.0"
},
"versions": ["BindGLFW_Static"],
"libs": ["glfw3"]

dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-glfw" version="~>0.1.0"
versions "BindGLFW_Static"
libs "glfw3"

Via DUB subconfigurations

Instead of using DUB's versions directive, a subConfiguration can be used. Enable the static subconfiguration for the bindbc-glfw dependency:

dub.json

"dependencies": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "~>0.1.0"
},
"subConfigurations": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "static"
},
"libs": ["glfw3"]

dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-glfw" version="~>0.1.0"
subConfiguration "bindbc-glfw" "static"
libs "glfw3"

This has the benefit that it completely excludes from the build any source modules related to the dynamic binding, i.e. they will never be passed to the compiler.

betterC support

betterC support is enabled via the dynamicBC and staticBC subconfigurations, for dynamic and static bindings respectively. To enable the static binding with -betterC support:

dub.json

"dependencies": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "~>0.1.0"
},
"subConfigurations": {
    "bindbc-glfw": "staticBC"
},
"libs": ["glfw3"]

dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-glfw" version="~>0.1.0"
subConfiguration "bindbc-glfw" "staticBC"
libs "glfw3"

When not using DUB to manage your project, first use DUB to compile the BindBC libraries with the dynamicBC or staticBC configuration, then pass -betterC to the compiler when building your project.