SDL 2.0 Headers for [Object] Pascal?

[WILL]

Also my question. If there will be SDL 2.0 for Pascal, will this break the SDL_Image and other things?

Like Super Vegeta said, there are newer versions of the support libraries like SDL_image and the rest that will support SDL 2.

The main problem is that there are no Pascal-based headers from what I can tell. Perhaps this is a new project for the community?

From what I can tell it would be worth it to work on a new set of headers for SDL. Considering the advantages that 2 brings to the table. Multiple display/window support, Force feedback for Win/Lin/Mac, improved video hardware acceleration support and of course Full Screen functionality that was lost to SDL 1.x in the last 2 versions of Mac OS X. :/

I don't think that Dom is doing much with JEDI-SDL these days other than just holding onto the repository. Honestly though I think that the "JEDI" label should probably be retired at some point considering that Delphi is likely much lower on the list of game dev tools these days.

[Cybermonkey]

Don't forget another big plus: statical linking is allowed on all platforms...

[WILL]

Yes true!

Also you can in fact use it for your Android and iOS games as I read from the SDL website.

[Murmandamus]

Just wanted to give a FYI on this topic.. since SDL 2.0 has gone RC, I have started doing the FPC header conversion for it. Not sure when or how much of it will be done -- I am trying to convert as much as possible, though some of the headers don't have a natural analogue in FPC.

Once I get a clean pass and can compile some test/example apps with it, I'll publish it on github.

[Cybermonkey]

Just wanted to give a FYI on this topic.. since SDL 2.0 has gone RC, I have started doing the FPC header conversion for it. Not sure when or how much of it will be done -- I am trying to convert as much as possible, though some of the headers don't have a natural analogue in FPC.

Once I get a clean pass and can compile some test/example apps with it, I'll publish it on github.

Those are really good news!

[WILL]

...I have started doing the FPC header conversion for it... ...Once I get a clean pass and can compile some test/example apps with it, I'll publish it on github.

That's great! Please keep the community informed. There are many that have been using SDL as a starting point into game graphics programming. It would be great if we could finally get an updated resource.

Dominique Louis (aka savage) no longer updates JEDI-SDL so it's kind of hard to tote it as the best beginners library out there now. Though it's not 100% obsolete, it's starting to age and compatibility and stability will start becoming an issue as desktop OSes start to evolve.

[Darkhog]

Well, while I have nothing against SDL, here's my two cents: I've tried it and found out that it is harder to grasp for beginners in "actual" game programming (by "actual" I mean not in software like Game Maker/The Games Factory/Stencyl/CraftStudio, though I have nothing against them) than Allegro.pas (or even C allegro). That being said, I don't consider SDL inferior or anything like that, it's just that I had troubles with understanding SDL and have no troubles with understanding Allegro.

Also are you sure JEDI-SDL is not updated anymore? I've look here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedi-sdl/ and in Last update it says some date in May 2013. If Dominique is not doing it, maybe it's someone else?

[Cybermonkey]

Well, while I have nothing against SDL, here's my two cents: I've tried it and found out that it is harder to grasp for beginners in "actual" game programming (by "actual" I mean not in software like Game Maker/The Games Factory/Stencyl/CraftStudio, though I have nothing against them) than Allegro.pas (or even C allegro). That being said, I don't consider SDL inferior or anything like that, it's just that I had troubles with understanding SDL and have no troubles with understanding Allegro.

Ok, it's vice versa in my opinion. I had not trouble starting with SDL (especially having that great ressource here: http://www.freepascal-meets-sdl.net/) but have almost no clue about Allegro ...

[WILL]

Also are you sure JEDI-SDL is not updated anymore? I've look here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedi-sdl/ and in Last update it says some date in May 2013. If Dominique is not doing it, maybe it's someone else?

Really?! Well that's a surprise.

Well to be honest I'm not too sure what he's been doing with it lately. I recall that he hadn't touched it in ages and I know that he was the last person that was managing the JEDI-SDL repository. He was working on adding better support for Mac when we talked last, but since then I have heard nothing. Perhaps he decided to poke around and clean up something or the odd missing files/demos or something.

On beginning...

Well truthfully I don't think that there has been quite as nice a beginner programmer's tool as there used to be for a time. Its not so much SDL's fault, but that of the landscape of all the tools changing so much in the last 5+ years. Lazarus was alright, but if you were learning on any platform other than Windows XP/7 you were practically up a creek. Delphi became office fodder that cost to much for anyone with any budget sense. And Oxygene wasn't what it is now.

I know someone is going to mention FPC so let me put this to rest. Straight FPC isn't the best for beginners and new programmers aren't going to be patient with ASCII IDEs, save those few "different" folks.

So to do it right you had just Lazarus and even there you had some issues for a short while.

Bringing SDL back to it's glory....

Hands down SDL had been the easiest to get into and start learning and it allowed you to easily learn and migrate to OpenGL while continuing to use it for those missing features from other API like DirectX's DirectInput, DirectSound and such. SDL was a good match, but then tools changed and setup became more involved and instructions and documentation less accurate with more exceptions causing you to do more reading and guesswork. Beginners, in some ways rightfully so, don't like too much of that right at the beginning.

If someone could foster a new set of headers for SDL 2.0 and maintain it well enough I could see it coming back as a good first game library for any potential beginners. It's the future of SDL so if Pascal developers want to keep current it'll need to be translated and kept up. Such is similar as the translating of the DGL OpenGL headers. Who else has brought the OpenGL headers up to 4.0? Not Embarcadero from what I've been told.