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> A GUI library is indeed not a GUI, but a library with which one might implement a GUI. This definition basically blurs the distinction between a "GUI library

> A GUI library is indeed not a GUI, but a library with which one might implement a GUI. This definition basically blurs the distinction between a "GUI library" and "graphics library". A GUI library is GTK, QT and others. A graphics library is usually divided into 3D like *GL variants and 2D like SDL or Skia or thousands of others (including this one).

layer8 1y ago
It’s not just a graphics library because they provide cross-platform access to input events, timers, as well as audio playback.
- int_19h 1y ago
  So does SDL, but that's still not a GUI lib. I'm honestly not sure what the best term for that is.
  - benterix 1y ago
    In the past we used the term "multimedia library".
dragonwriter 1y ago
> A graphics library is usually divided into 3D like *GL variants and 2D like SDL OpenGL (what I assume you are referring to by *GL) is both 2D and 3D; it also, as one might expect of purely a graphics library, doesn't provide control events or audio and considers that something else's problem. SDL ("Simple DirectMedia Layer") does do things like control events and audio, but does not describe itself as a graphics library, but as "a cross-platform library designed to make it easy to write multi-media software, such as games and emulators."