Pegl: Python 3 binding for EGL

Pegl is a binding to EGL, written in native Python 3 through the ctypes library. It provides comprehensive access to EGL functions, while offering a Pythonic API.

EGL is a specification from the Khronos Group that provides an intermediate layer between other Khronos specifications (OpenGL, OpenGL ES, OpenVG), called “client APIs”, and the native graphics system. EGL can supply an implicit rendering context for each of the client APIs, as well as features like surfaces and buffering.

Pegl wraps EGL version 1.5, and is backwards compatible with previous versions of the specification.

The current Pegl version is 0.2a1. As an alpha version, care should be taken before making use of the library! Please test it out and open a GitHub issue to report the results.

License

Pegl is free software, released under the GNU GPLv3. See the file COPYING and individual source files for the full license terms.

Use

A typical use case might feature these steps:

1. Create a Display instance
2. Get a Config instance to match your requirements
3. Bind the client API you want to use
4. Get a Context instance and/or a Surface instance, as necessary
5. Do your work in the client API
6. Repeat from step 3 to mix different client APIs in the one application

Sample code for steps 1 to 4 might look like this:

>>> import pegl
>>> dpy = pegl.Display()
>>> conf = dpy.choose_config({pegl.ConfigAttrib.RENDERABLE_TYPE:
...                           pegl.ClientAPIFlag.OPENGL_ES})[0]
>>> pegl.bind_api(pegl.ClientAPI.OPENGL_ES)
>>> ctx = conf.create_context()
>>> surf = conf.create_pbuffer_surface({pegl.SurfaceAttrib.WIDTH: 640,
...                                     pegl.SurfaceAttrib.HEIGHT: 480})
>>> ctx.make_current(draw=surf)

Development and testing

Pegl uses tox to run tests and compile coverage data. Tests are currently set up for Python versions 3.7 through 3.9.

I test Pegl on Linux (Fedora with current Mesa releases) and on Windows (Windows 10 with current ANGLE releases). Please run tests on other platforms and open an issue to report your results!

The PEGLEGLVERSION environment variable

By default, Pegl will attempt to load all EGL functions up to version 1.5. If any of a given version’s functions cannot be loaded from the native library, it infers that the library does not support that version and stops there.

It is possible to force Pegl to stop early by setting the PEGLEGLVERSION environment variable. For instance, setting it to 1.4 will cause Pegl to not attempt loading EGL 1.5 functions, even if the library supports them.

This is used in the tests to check backwards compatibility, albeit imperfectly.

Roadmap

0.x series

Releases in this series will provide a wrapper that is Pythonic, but still fairly low-level, and the API is not guaranteed to be stable.

1.x series

Once the basic Pegl functionality is tested and considered usable, I will aim to improve the API, so that an EGL environment can be set up with a minimum of code. When I’m happy with the results, version numbers will be bumped up to 1.x, with a corresponding assurance of API stability.