May 7-10, 2017 Asilomar, California

Let's Fix OpenGL

Adrian Sampson

From windowing systems to virtual reality, real-time graphics code is ubiquitous. Programming models for constructing graphics software, however, have largely escaped the attention of programming languages researchers. This essay introduces the programming model of OpenGL, a ubiquitous API for real-time graphics applications, for a programming-languages audience. It highlights six broad problems with the programming model and connects them to traditions in PL research.