Is there any proper documentation for JOGL?
What I have found so far is OK if you know what you are doing, but way too complex for somebody starting out.
This is not necessarily a criticism, but an open-source project can only survive if the bar of entry for using the software is not set too high.
Installation – You can download the jogl.ar files easily enough, but no direction on what to do to run the first demo, no documentation. All you have is a bunch of .class files and a couple of DLLs.
JOGL User’s Guide - The one page user guide (index.html) is all over the place. Instead of showing a single example and explaing bit and pieces, it mixes design decisions, implementation issues with tips on how to do it. Unless you are already familiar with a lot of the code, reading the user guide is not going to help.
Forums - “Getting Started with JOGL” thread is a bit more useful. It provides examples for a change, but “forums” should be for discussing the software, not for figuring out how to use it. Forums also have additional noise, everything from inside jokes to misunderstandings. The user guide should be concise, relevant information.
Documentation – Where can I find the documentation and public methods for say GLPanel? Surely, the answer cannot be, download the code from CVS, inspect it and make guesses about how things might tie together. I am still hoping there is an answer to this question out there.
[EDIT: jogl_javadoc_public.tar.gz does have the javdoc documentation which is a start]
JOGL is impressive. It does some things well, but the level of effort to learn it and use it seems to be too high. I hope somebody will be able to point me to the “hidden” documentation or maybe push for documentation to be a higher priority item for JOGL’s future.
Cheers,
Yusuf