What's the state of SDL?

[mot]

Does anyone know the current development state of SDL? I wonder, the "latest" version is 1.2 and I haven't seen any updates for a looong time.

Also, if SDL is dead, what similar libraries are there? I mean fairly low level libs that make it easy to open windows, read input events, output audio, the basic stuff, no frameworks. And they should definitely be under active development, because there are things that SDL is missing but I see no hope of them being added in the future.

Thanks!

[ggambett]

SDL is FAR from dead, and 1.2.8 was released relatively recently. There's also a lot of talk about the plans for SDL 2.0, a major overhaul.

I use SDL, SDL_mixer and SDL_image with very little trouble. I develop on Linux and build for Windows and Mac. Everything works like a charm!

[Pyabo]

Please do not confuse MATURE with dead.

[dima]

yeah, SDL isn't anywhere near being dead. It's the best of it's kind I think. You can look at Allegro, but IMO SDL is better off. Check out the PopCap framework if you're happy with Windows only.

[Valen]

Does anyone know the current development state of SDL? I wonder, the "latest" version is 1.2 and I haven't seen any updates for a looong time.

SDL 1.x is pretty much "finished" at this point. As ggambett said, there are plans for rewriting SDL from scratch with a new architecture. Here's what the FAQ says:

SDL 2.0 will be a full redesign of the SDL functionality, based on what we've learned over the past four years. The architecture design is partially done, and we'll start prototyping the design soon. As soon as there's a working framework, we'll make it publicly available for comment and contributions. This new framework has about a year or so before we anticipate it being ready for stable release.

[Ryan Clark]

We're using SDL for our current game, and as others have said, it works like a charm! No complaints whatsoever For cross platform 2D games, SDL is exactly what you want.

[mot]

I meant the 2.0 version, actually. It's been mentioned a long time ago on the site. I have no complaints about 1.2, but some functions are just missing. Like getting the current screen resolution if I want to create a fullscreen surface without switching video modes etc. Otherwise I think SDL is great, my first post was not meant as an offense.

[ggambett]

some functions are just missing. Like getting the current screen resolution

That's true, and these kind of requests appear in the mailing list quite frequently. In particular that one was discussed recently, I believe.

There IS a problem with SDL; not with the lib itself, but with the philosophy of some developers. Some guys don't want to implement ANYTHING that can't be implemented EVERYWHERE; if a microwave oven that runs SDL on top of embedded Linux can't toggle full screen/windowed, they prefer not to implement it in ANY target. Others implement functions in the targets where they are supported.

So... in cases like this you have no choice but to implement it yourself. Do it correctly, comment your code and submit it as a patch, you may even get it included.