So is "Farmer Joe's Matching Yard" an SDL app then?

I would have to agree that SDL is a lot easier to use that most API's out there. In a future release, they will be adding an OpenGL back-end to it so even 2D applications will make use of hardware acceleration, without the need for recompiling. I am hoping it will be in v1.2.8, but realistically it probably won't make it until v2.0.0 is released.