WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl

jds17 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks,

I am writing a soccer program as a fun project. I don't need any fancy graphics, hardware acceleration, ... I am more interested in the gameplay / algorithms / strategy.

I finally managed to get OpenGL working under Win XP and have created some parts of my program. Then, some weeks ago, I bought an Asus Eee PC and the same fiddling around with OpenGL support happened once more (Xandros & Mandriva are installed on the Eee), without success.

What would be your suggestion for a portable and easy to use graphics solution with good Perl integration?

I already had some crazy ideas about using some browser plugin or some kind of ajax grid talking to a little perl http server, maybe if performance is not the main factor, using the browser as GUI could be the best solution. Any suggestions are welcome!

Update: Guys, thank you all very much for your input over the last days. I think I'll go the SDL route and try to get it running on windows, too. I am sure there is something to learn on the way.

Comment on WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl

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Re: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by pc88mxer (Vicar) on Jun 02, 2008 at 20:57 UTC
The Perl Hacks book mentions SDL. I think it's what Frozen Bubble uses.	[reply]
Re^2: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jds17 (Pilgrim) on Jun 02, 2008 at 21:10 UTC
Hi pc88mxer, thanks for the info. In fact, a few minutes ago I did an `apt-get install libsdl-perl` [download] (for Xandros), downloaded the Perl Hacks book code and got the sdl_animation.pl program running. So I guess this counts as a partial success. In any case I would be very interested in alternatives. Are there any simpler solutions if I just need to draw some primitives using a few colors and have a decent animation?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jds17 (Pilgrim) on Jun 02, 2008 at 22:06 UTC
I tried to get SDL to work on Win XP and did not succeed. I would rather not use the OpenGL module on Windows XP and SDL on Xandros for the same project. Therefore, dear monks, I would appreciate any alternative idea. By the way, I already did some searches on CPAN without finding an appropriate module, but maybe I overlooked a gem or two :-)	[reply]
Re^3: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jettero (Monsignor) on Jun 03, 2008 at 01:40 UTC
Why doesn't the SDL work in XP? How didn't you succeed? Is it impossible or did you just give up? -Paul	[reply]
Re^4: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jds17 (Pilgrim) on Jun 03, 2008 at 12:03 UTC
Re^5: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jettero (Monsignor) on Jun 03, 2008 at 12:41 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by zentara (Cardinal) on Jun 03, 2008 at 11:27 UTC
*Any suggestions are welcome* It isn't 3-d, but it could be a start on a cool soccer game. Tk::Zinc is available for linux and win32. See Strangely addictive Tk::Zinc based game I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth CandyGram for Mongo	[reply]
Re^2: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by jds17 (Pilgrim) on Jun 03, 2008 at 14:07 UTC
Hi, thanks for pointing me to Zinc, looks quite impressive, but I did not manage to install it under Strawberry Perl 5.10.0.1 via cpan. I get a whole lot of errors, ending in Tabular.c:702: warning: excess elements in scalar initializer Tabular.c:702: warning: (near initialization for `TABULAR_ITEM_CLASS') Tabular.c:704: warning: excess elements in scalar initializer Tabular.c:704: warning: (near initialization for `TABULAR_ITEM_CLASS') Tabular.c:704: warning: data definition has no type or storage class dmake.EXE: Error code 129, while making 'Tabular.o' ZINCDEV/tk-zinc-3.303.tar.gz C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.EXE -- NOT OK [download] Did you manage to install Tk::Zinc on Windows / Strawberry?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by zentara (Cardinal) on Jun 03, 2008 at 15:18 UTC
You might ask on the Zinc Maillist or post another top level node here, asking if anyone has compiled it under Strawberry. I rarely use Windows, but I did install the precompiled package available for win32 from the Download Page IIRC, you need at least WindowsXP for it to work. I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth CandyGram for Mongo	[reply]
Re: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by Anonymous Monk on Jun 03, 2008 at 14:37 UTC
I'd probably use Graphman's Perl-to-OpenGL binding: http://graphcomp.com/opengl/ (aka "POGL"). At the CPAN, it's OpenGL.	[reply]
Re: WANTED: Simple & portable graphics to use with Perl by Anonymous Monk on Jun 03, 2008 at 23:22 UTC
If you need some UI for your program (and not just draw some scenes), you should look at wxPerl (or also on CPAN).	[reply]