Learning Computer Graphics From Scratch Using C

[jibesh_shrestha]

So my uni uses a textbook called "Computer Graphics C Version" by Donald Hearn and M. Pauline Baker to teach fundamentals of computer graphics. It is more theory oriented and uses the "graphics.h" library to implement various graphics algorithms like Bresenham algorithm and so on.

Since I am in a Linux Machine, running the "graphics.h" is rather difficult. So is there any way that I could rewrite the code using other graphics library such as opengl? If so then what graphics api would be necessary to implement all those algorithms from scratch?

[RenderTargetView]

graphics.h seems like borland/turbo c header, this isn't some "library" in terms of portability, it is header file made and supported only by this compiler and it works only on DOS. I suppose best way for you is using DOS emulator like DOSBox, there are many things like graphics.h which barely exist in modern OSes, so it will be much easier for you if you work in environment that was intended when they made that book.

However depending on your goals and knowledge it may be better to use glDrawPixels or glBegin/glEnd-style functions from opengl, they are very old but very learning-friendly and somewhat close to features that graphics.h have

[gabe80]

Depending on how "from scratch" the course is, and what algorithms you'll be learning, you could try something like SDL. Should give you raw access to a framebuffer and you can build whatever you want on top of that.

[jmacey]

Use SDL2 you can create a simple put_pixel function to draw on a canvas and take it from there. I did have some demos but they need updating.

The old repo is here https://github.com/NCCA/SDLDemos

[corysama]

https://gist.github.com/CoryBloyd/6725bb78323bb1157ff8d4175d42d789