Program basics

Let’s have a look at how an OPENRNDR program is structured. Most programs will share a structure like the one below.

fun main() = application {
    configure {
    // set Configuration options here
    }
    
    program {
        // -- what is here is executed once
        extend {
        // -- what is here is executed 'as often as possible'
        }
    }
}

The application block

The application block is used to setup the run-time environment of the software we are writing. This block houses two other blocks: configure and program.

The configure block

The configure block is an optional block that is used to configure the run-time environment. Most commonly it is used to configure the size of the window.

An example configuration that sets the window size, window resizability and title is as follows:

fun main() = application {
    configure {
        width = 1280
        height = 720
        windowResizable = true
        title = "OPENRNDR Example"
    }
    program {}
}

The program block

The program block houses the actual programming logic. Note that program {} has a Program receiver.

The code inside the program block is only executed after a window has been created and a graphical context has been set up. This code is only executed once.

From the code block one can install extensions using extend. Extensions are by default executed as often as possible. The most important type of extension is the one that holds user code.

A minimal application-program-extend setup would then look like this:

fun main() = application {
    program {
        extend {
            drawer.circle(width / 2.0, height / 2.0, 100.0)
        }
    }
}

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