A life of OpenGL graphics programming

the novice

while (rendering) {
    glUniform1f(glGetUniformLocation(program, "pi"), 3.1415f);
}

the diligent

GLint uniform_pi = glGetUniformLocation(program, "pi");
while (rendering) {
    glUniform1f(uniform_pi, 3.1415f);
}

the scholar

#include <string>
#include <map>
class Program {
public:
    void uniform1f(std::string name, float x) {
        if (locs.find(name) == locs.end())
            locs[name] = glGetUniformLocation(name.c_str());
        glUniform1f(locs[name], x);
    }
private:
    GLuint program;
    std::map<std::string, GLint> locs;
};

while (rendering) {
    program.uniform1f("pi", 3.1415f);
}

the engineer

while (rendering) {
    // TODO:FIXME:uniforms break if prog is reloaded!!!
    static GLint loc = glGetUniformLocation(program, "pi");
    glUniform1f(loc, 3.1415f);
}

the clever

#define Uniform(type,prog,name,...) {                       \
        static GLint loc = glGetUniformLocation(prog,Name); \
        glUniform##type(loc,__VA_ARGS__);                   \
    }

while (rendering) {
    Uniform(1f,program,"pi", 3.1415f);
    Uniform(1i,program,"bar", 1);
    Uniform(Matrix4fv,program,"pvm", 1,GL_FALSE,pvm);
}

the wise

while (rendering) {
    glUniform1f(glGetUniformLocation(program, "pi"), 3.1415f);
}