Cogs and Levers A blog full of technical stuff

OpenGL, GLUT & Haskell

02 Jan 2013

Introduction

We’re into some of the real good stuff here. One of my favourite topics in computer programming is graphics (2d and 3d). In this post, I get to make a start on some fun stuff and learn some Haskell at the same time. We’re going to open an OpenGL window, clear the back buffer out and flip.

Screenshot

The code

import Graphics.Rendering.OpenGL                
import Graphics.UI.GLUT                         
                                                
main :: IO ()                                   
main = do                                       
   -- initialize openGL                         
   (progname, _) <- getArgsAndInitialize        
   -- open up the application window            
   createWindow "Hello World"                   
   -- set the render proc and run the main loop 
   displayCallback $= display                   
   mainLoop                                     
                                                
display :: IO ()                                
display = do                                    
   -- clear the buffer and flip                 
   clear [ ColorBuffer ]                        
   flush

Ok, ok, fair enough - this is almost a direct-rip from the [Haskell Wiki](http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/OpenGLTutorial1_, I’m not claiming it as my code. It’s more of a bookmark as a good foot-hold in the OpenGL-Haskell marriage!

Compilation

Getting your application compiled is cake, just make sure you specify GLUT as a package.

$ ghc -package GLUT Ogl.hs -o Ogl

That’s what it’s all about!

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