bradleylyman / elixir_native_visualization Goto Github PK

Now that the project has reached the "first triangle" it's time to figure out how to manage window/openGL resources in native code.

There are a few housekeeping issues to be addressed

• main file is called "first_nif.cpp" this should be cleaned up
• establish clear boundary between erlang <-> translation layer, and the window/application logic
• Decide upon a resource management scheme, probably rename SDLWindow in the Context.hpp file and move the code into it's own file

Add information to the readme about project dependencies and how to build.

Also a gif of some Elixir-driven graphics would be pretty neat.

How will windows be managed?

Right now the NatVis.Run method is a tight loop until the window exits. This means there is no way to tell the window about things or stop the window from Elixir.

The purpose of this issue is to figure out two things:

1. How will the window communicate with the world? Keystrokes and mouse events, etc...
2. How will the world communicate with the window?
   • how can the window be killed?
   • how does Elixir tell the window what to render?

For the second part of the second question I have a general sort of idea.
When the window is started it is provided a function which produces the geometry to render each frame. That function could collaborate with other actors or it could just render things directly.

elixir_native_visualization is a mouthful and sucks.

In the code I've adopted a top-level module name of "NatVis", but this is also pretty clumsy to say.

I have some ideas about what I'd like to do with native graphics and Elixir.
The purpose of this story is to document those ideas and establish some kind of goal/milestones.