Allegro vs SDL ?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I'm getting to the point in C++ where I have the ability to start making some simple graphics and media. I will be mostly using the Windows platform but wish to keep things open-ended because there are other OSs out there. Now I have considered both Allegro and SDL. My question is which to choose? Of course, the real answer will probably be different from person to person so please share your opinion! I enjoy game development and it seems that Allegro is more of a game library?

[benny!]

To throw a third candidate into the pool, did you have a look at
http://hge.relishgames.com/ yet ? Seems to be a good
2D game engine, too.

I had a quick look at all of them - in the end I prefered SDL, because
it has a huge community and a lot of 3rd party extensions. Although
I just played around with them and didnt do any big project with it.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Thanks benny!

I think I want to stay cross platform to some extent however. The link seems to favor DirectX which will limit my options.

[hellfire]

I used SDL a couple of times. It's the easiest choice if you need platform-independance beyond windows/linux (eg. pocket-pc, amiga, dreamcast, playstation, etc).
While SDL is pretty lowlevel, Allegro has some additions like bitmap-loaders, primitive-drawing, sound-playback and some math-functions - some of these are better implemented in dedicated libs (like devil or FMOD), others are generally superseded by OpenGL.
If you're more into object-orientated programming I'd use SFML instead of SDL.

[Hotshot]

Allegro is all under one roof(just one files of alleg40.dll but I do know been update up to 4.2 or 5 I think) where SDL, you have add some library to make things work....eg...  SDL.dll and other things files too.

Everyone have different view, SDL is like OPENGL I think where Allergo is Direct x as it like Open GL Vs Direct x

Benny Hill got good point when he say "huge community and a lot of 3rd party extensions" for SDL

Pick what you like, See what fit for you and also what you feel converable with the language that you are happy with it.

good Luck Pixel

[Shockwave]

SDL seems to have much better support so on the face of it I think that's the one I would choose too.

[Clyde]

Ive used sdl, onething I didnt like much was that it makes this thick bordering around any presentations.

And I always thought that Alegro was a car.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Thanks guys. Just trying to see what kind of support there is for both here.