root/tags/Release_0_1/README

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Derelict
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Derelict is (or will be) a collection of D packages which provide access to
several C libraries useful to multimedia/graphic applications (games, image
editors, video playback software, etc...). Each individual package is designed
to stand alone without introducing any extra dependencies other than those
of D's Phobos library and the shared library the package interfaces with. In
fact, Derelict completely eliminates the dependency on import libraries for
each package by loading the shared libraries dynamically. Unfortuantely, there 
is one tiny drawback that prevents Derelict from loading shared libraries 
automatically (something I would ultimately like it to do).

While it is possible in D to make use of module constructors to load system
resources automatically, DerelictGL does not do this at present. The reason is
that it is currently not possible to catch exceptions thrown from a module
constructor when your application entry point is the main() method. For Win32
GUI apps this is not a problem, since D requires you to manually initialize the
module constructors yourself when using WinMain as an entry point, thereby allowing
you to catch any exceptions thrown from a module constructor. When you have a main()
entry point however, the module constructors are initialized by the runtime, giving
you no chance to catch any exceptions they throw.

If the Derelict packages loaded the shared libs in their module contructors,
applications with a main() entry point would not be able to handle the case of
missing or corrupted shared libs in an application-specific manner. This would
defeat the whole purpose of Derelict's creation. So each Derelict package
requires you to manually call a load function (named accordingly for the
package) which loads the shared lib and all exported functions. If there ever
becomes a way to handle exceptions thrown by module constructors when using a
main() entry point, then this requirement will be eliminated.

Note that there is no equivalent requirement to unload shared libs in Derelict, 
as this is handled automatically with module destructors.

Derelict packages may be used independently of each other, or collectively. 

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DERELICT 1.0 GOALS
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For a 1.0 release, Derelict will include the following packages:

DerelictGL - OpenGL interface
DerelictGLU - GLU interface
DerelictSDL - SDL interface
DerelictAL - OpenAL interface
DerelictDX - DirectX 5 ~ 9 intefaces
DerelictOGG - libogg interface
DerelictVorbis -libvorbis interface
DerelictPNG - libpng interface
DerelictJPEG - libjpeg interface

I am sure that after 1.0, Derelict will continue to grow with new packages. 

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LICENSE
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Each individual package in Derelict is released under the same license as the
library it interfaces with.

--
Mike Parker (Aldacron)