Editing IRIS GL (section)

== History ==
In 1982, SGI began development of IRIS GL. It soon became much more popular than the ANSI standard [[PHIGS]], as developers considered it more intuitive and flexible. In the years after 1982, IRIS GL began licensing it to many companies, including [[IBM]]. Fragmentation soon became an issue with IRIS GL's popularity, in the implementations and a much bigger one with many different [[windowing system]]s. In 1985, the [[X window system]] came around, and finally there was a somewhat common system. The system was considered more transparent and reliable.<ref name="opengldistilled"/>

Later, a competitor came along from [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[Digital Equipment Corporation]], relying much more on the X window system. It was technically called X3D, though soon became more commonly known as [[PHIGS]] Extension To X (PEX). By the late 1980's, full implementations were available. Around that time, developers that used IRIS GL started to demand a portable, open graphics standard from SGI to support the most machines possible.<ref name="opengldistilled"/>

In 1989, to comply with the demands and not be replaced, SGI started development of [[OpenGL]]. Two years later, the OpenGL ARB was formed with people from many different companies. In September of 1991, it was announced by SGI that IRIS GL was available for general licensing, making it fully open. They also announced that several companies,  including Intel and Microsoft endorsed the GL.<ref>{{cite web |title=SILICON GRAPHICS OPENS IRIS GRAPHICS LIBRARY FOR GENERAL LICENSING |url=http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/graphics/documents/iris-gl-announce.txt |website=sgistuff.net |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref>

In June 1992, the OpenGL 1.0 specification was released, with as much portability as possibly.<ref name="opengldistilled">{{cite book |last1=Martz |first1=Paul |title=OpenGL Distilled |publisher=Addison-Wesley |date=2006 |url=https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/opengl-r-distilled/0321336798/ch01.html#ch01lev1sec1 |access-date=1 March 2025}} (free trial)</ref> Unlike PEX, OpenGL did not rely on the window system, it being a completely separate part to ensure their previous goals were met. To avoid namespace conflicts, every function was prefixed with "gl". Many modules were also either cleaned up, removed, or renamed.<ref name="glforx">{{cite book |last1=Kilgrad |first1=Mark |title=OpenGL programming for the X window system |pages=4-5 |date=1996 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=0201483599 |url=https://archive.org/details/openglprogrammin0000kilg |access-date=1 March 2025}}</ref>