Re: Clarification

[Sam Lantinga <slouken@devolution.com>]

> With all the suggestions flying around lately (And some of the ones
> I've made) I would really like to know what exactly SDL is supposed to
> do.  What exactly it is supposed to encompass and what should be left
> out.

Not a problem:

The Simple DirectMedia Layer is a low level interface abstraction layer
for multimedia programs.  As such, it provides the basic portable API
required for building full-screen multimedia applications.

The services it provides include:

	Video surface access (2D)
	Audio stream access
	General event queue

In addition, to allow interesting, portable applications:

	API for creation of threads
	Basic semaphore mechanism
	Simple timer services
	Windows DIB bitmap file loading
	Microsoft WAVE file loading
	Endian-independent value manipulation

These last items aren't really the focus of SDL, but either arose out
of a need to make the basic library immediately useful, or as a natural
consequence of the cross-platform implementation.

That's it:  Simple -- DirectMedia -- Layer -- KISS

Now, to make this interesting to the average developer, it really helps
to have examples and cool demos to show off what SDL can do, and give the
developer some documentation and useful libraries.  That's the purpose of
the SDL-demos archive.  

Medium-core game developers and porters of existing applications will just
want the raw interface with no cruft.  That's the basic SDL library.
Others, especially freeware developers, will appreciate useful file loaders,
prewritten mixers, effect libraries, etc.

I'm interested in providing the basic layer, and allowing others to create
nice libraries and applications that sit on top of SDL.

That's the Simple DirectMedia Layer in a nutshell. :)

For the record, the reason I've done so many of the examples is because
it's exciting to take the library and make something visually and aurally
appealing.

See ya! :-)
	-Sam Lantinga				(slouken@devolution.com)

--
Author of Simple DirectMedia Layer -
	http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/SDL/
--