glGetString(3)

NAME

       - 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 describing some aspect
       of the current GL connection.  name can be one of the following:

       GL_VENDOR           Returns  the company responsible for this GL imple-
                           mentation.  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 supported  exten-
                           sions to GL.

       Because  the GL does not include queries for the performance character-
       istics of an implementation, some applications 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 implemented as extensions to the
       standard GL.  The GL_EXTENSIONS string is  a  space-separated  list  of
       supported  GL extensions.  (Extension names never contain a space char-
       acter.)

       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  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  version  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 executed between
       the execution of glBegin and the corresponding execution of glEnd.

                                                               GLGETSTRING(3G)