GLGETSTRING() MachTen Programmer’s Manual GLGETSTRING()

NAME
glGetString - return a string describing the current GL
connection

C SPECIFICATION
const GLubyte * glGetString( GLenum name )

PARAMETERS
name Specifies a symbolic constant, one of GL_VENDOR,
GL_RENDERER, GL_VERSION, or GL_EXTENSIONS.

DESCRIPTION
glGetString returns a pointer to a static string describ-
ing some aspect of the current GL connection. name can be
one of the following:

GL_VENDOR Returns the company responsible for
this GL implementation. This name
does not change from release to
release.

GL_RENDERER Returns the name of the renderer.
This name is typically specific to a
particular configuration of a hardware
platform. It does not change from
release to release.

GL_VERSION Returns a version or release number.

GL_EXTENSIONS Returns a space-separated list of sup-
ported extensions to GL.

Because the GL does not include queries for the perfor-
mance characteristics of an implementation, some applica-
tions are written to recognize known platforms and modify
their GL usage based on known performance characteristics
of these platforms. Strings GL_VENDOR and GL_RENDERER
together uniquely specify a platform. They do not change
from release to release and should be used by platform-
recognition algorithms.

Some applications want to make use of features that are
not part of the standard GL. These features may be imple-
mented as extensions to the standard GL. The
GL_EXTENSIONS string is a space-separated list of sup-
ported GL extensions. (Extension names never contain a
space character.)

The GL_VERSION string begins with a version number. The
version number uses one of these forms:

major_number.minor_number
major_number.minor_number.release_number

Vendor-specific information may follow the version number.
Its format depends on the implementation, but a space
always separates the version number and the vendor-
specific information.

All strings are null-terminated.

NOTES
If an error is generated, glGetString returns 0.

The client and server may support different versions or
extensions. glGetString always returns a compatible ver-
sion number or list of extensions. The release number
always describes the server.

ERRORS
GL_INVALID_ENUM is generated if name is not an accepted
value.

GL_INVALID_OPERATION is generated if glGetString is exe-
cuted between the execution of glBegin and the correspond-
ing execution of glEnd.

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