O_oExcuse my lazy posts above, Soma.
Assuming that was sincere you will not be so again where there is no issue.
So, no apology is necessary.
Balance!Incomplete example portions in the text mean you have to read the whole damn source code just to demonstrate a simple principle
It is even worse when the material includes a complete source dump.
Unfortunately a lot of different build environments exists; if it hadn't have been that one it might have been worse.weird never-seen-before utility needed to compile the example projects
It could have, for example, only given "Microsoft Visual C++" project files or required a full set of GNU "autotools".
Literally every programming book and tutorial does this.lots of unexplained boilerplate with "we'll get to this later" and "the next three lines set state" as comments
This approach too is a necessity.the first introduction of vertex and fragment shaders is just a "trust us, compile it and it will work" job with little explanation of what it actually does
You can't explain every possible concept "up front".
C++ books and tutorials that being with the classic "Hello, World!" do not begin by covering operator overloading for example.
Unless a person already has significant experience with the mathematics involved this is going to be true, again, with literally every book or tutorial on the subject.large portions of maths that are way over most people's heads
It simply isn't necessary for a book on "OpenGL" programming to delve fully into mathematics.
Such an approach only pads the length of the tutorial, and it also happens that programmers are not good at teaching mathematics.
Reading and relying on a dedicated book or tutorial on those concepts is for the better.
This I agree with completely.The poster just wants to start drawing things on the screen, and that tutorial is completely the wrong kind for that purpose.
Strangely enough, if someone only wants to start drawing on the screen "OpenGL" is entirely the wrong tool.
A better tool would be "SFML" or "SDL" or any of many others.
A more complex and featured API necessitates a more complex tutorial.
The tutorial certainly has its flaws, but most of what you've complained about applies to every book and tutorial on complex topics.
In the interest of others, have you considered making your base "SFML" framework partially compatible with the framework used in that tutorial so that others may benefit from your work?After that, it is a rather smooth sailing.