<TITLE>Mesa Introduction</TITLE>
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<H1>Introduction</H1>
<p>
-Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to
-that of <a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a>.*
-To the extent that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state
-machine, it is being used with authorization from <a
-href="http://www.sgi.com/" target="_parent">Silicon Graphics,
-Inc.</a>(SGI). However, the author does not possess an OpenGL license
-from SGI, and makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible
-replacement for OpenGL or associated with SGI. Those who want a
-licensed implementation of OpenGL should contact a licensed
-vendor.
+Mesa is an open-source implementation of the
+<a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a> specification -
+a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
</p>
<p>
-Please do not refer to the library as <em>MesaGL</em> (for legal
-reasons). It's just <em>Mesa</em> or <em>The Mesa 3-D graphics
-library</em>. <br>
+A variety of device drivers allows Mesa to be used in many different
+environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware acceleration
+for modern GPUs.
</p>
<p>
-* OpenGL is a trademark of <a href="http://www.sgi.com/"
-target="_parent">Silicon Graphics Incorporated</a>.
+Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
+<a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/" target="_parent">Direct Rendering
+Infrastructure</a> and <a href="http://x.org" target="_parent">X.org</a> to
+provide OpenGL support to users of X on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
+systems.
</p>
+
<H1>Project History</H1>
<p>
-The Mesa project was founded by me, Brian Paul. Here's a short history
-of the project.
+The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
+Here's a short history of the project.
</p>
<p>
of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
Mesa is now being using for the <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html" target="_parent">Vis5D</a> project.
</p><p>
-October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implementes the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
+October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
</p>
<p>
<p>
-November 2001: I cofound <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com" target="_parent">
-Tungsten Graphics, Inc.</a> with Keith Whitwell, Jens Owen, David Dawes and
-Frank LaMonica.
-I continue to develop Mesa as part of my resposibilities with Tungsten
-Graphics and as a spare-time project.
+November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
+Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
+Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
</p>
<p>
GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
</p>
+<p>
+June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
+and OpenGL Shading Language.
+</p>
+
<p>
-Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for XFree86
-within the
-<A href="http://dri.sourceforge.net/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
+Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for
+the XFree86 and X.org X servers within the
+<A href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
</p>
<H1>Major Versions</H1>
<p>
-This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa. Note that Mesa's major
-version number tracks OpenGL's minor version number.
+This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
+Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
+of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
+</p>
+
+
+<H2>Version 7.x features</H2>
+<p>
+Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
+of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
</p>
</ul>
<p>
Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
-for the sake of consistency. The old names will still be valid.
+for the sake of consistency.
+The old tokens are still available.
</p>
<pre>
-New Name Old Name
+New Token Old Token
------------------------------------------------------------
GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
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