SDL::Tutorial(3)					User Contributed Perl Documentation					  SDL::Tutorial(3)

NAME

       SDL::Tutorial - introduction to Perl SDL

SYNOPSIS

	       # to read this tutorial
	       $ perldoc SDL::Tutorial

	       # to create a bare-bones SDL app based on this tutorial
	       $ perl -MSDL::Tutorial -e 1

SDL BASICS

       SDL, the Simple DirectMedia Layer, is a cross-platform multimedia library.  These are the Perl 5 bindings.  You can find out more about SDL
       at <http://www.libsdl.org/>.

       Creating an SDL application with Perl is easy.  You have to know a few basics, though.  Here's how to get up and running as quickly as
       possible.

   Surfaces
       All graphics in SDL live on a surface.  You'll need at least one.  That's what SDL::App provides.

       Of course, before you can get a surface, you need to initialize your video mode.  SDL gives you several options, including whether to run
       in a window or take over the full screen, the size of the window, the bit depth of your colors, and whether to use hardware acceleration.
       For now, we'll build something really simple.

   Initialization
       SDL::App makes it easy to initialize video and create a surface.  Here's how to ask for a windowed surface with 640x480x16 resolution:

	       use SDL::App;

	       my $app = SDL::App->new(
		       -width  => 640,
		       -height => 480,
		       -depth  => 16,
	       );

       You can get more creative, especially if you use the "-title" and "-icon" attributes in a windowed application.	Here's how to set the
       window title of the application to "My SDL Program":

	       use SDL::App;

	       my $app = SDL::App->new(
		       -height => 640,
		       -width  => 480,
		       -depth  => 16,
		       -title  => 'My SDL Program',
	       );

       Setting an icon is a little more involved -- you have to load an image onto a surface.  That's a bit more complicated, but see the "-name"
       parameter to "SDL::Surface-"new()> if you want to skip ahead.

   Working With The App
       Since $app from the code above is just an SDL surface with some extra sugar, it behaves much like SDL::Surface.	In particular, the all-
       important "blit" and "update" methods work.  You'll need to create SDL::Rect objects representing sources of graphics to draw onto the
       $app's surface, "blit" them there, then "update" the $app.

       Note:  "blitting" is copying a chunk of memory from one place to another.

       That, however, is another tutorial.

SEE ALSO

       SDL::Tutorial::Drawing
	   basic drawing with rectangles

       SDL::Tutorial::Animation
	   basic rectangle animation

       SDL::Tutorial::Images
	   image loading and animation

AUTHOR

       chromatic, <chromatic@wgz.org>.

       Written for and maintained by the Perl SDL project, <http://sdl.perl.org/>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2003 - 2004, chromatic.  All rights reserved.  This module is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself, in the hope
       that it is useful but certainly under no guarantee.

perl v5.12.1							    2010-07-05							  SDL::Tutorial(3)