[osg-users] Matrix multiplication order

[Robert Osfield]

On 22 March 2018 at 13:13, Florian GOLESTIN <florian.golestin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> Thanks for the answer, I understand now.
>
> I worked as a Support Engineer and understand the hard choice of breaking an API :)

Paradoxically I would probably have made the change if I could have
broken the API and forced users to change the problematic code with
the compiler pinpointing the problems.  With a change in convention
the code remains compatible so will compile without any issues but
will silently start behaving differently.  Users would end up with
applications that compile and run but have these bugs lurking and
appearing in odd, difficult to understand ways.

Another paradox is that OpenGL matrices are stored in main memory as
row major, but the GLSL convention is column major.

Software engineering can just get a bit messy sometimes even when you
have the best of intentions!

Robert.