Version 006 of openFrameworks has been released. Some of the additions include the Poco library, an event system, abstracted the window system, interestingly the updated the core to be iPhone friendly, plus bug fixes and lots of cool new stuff…..

openFrameworks is a C++ library for creative coding. Used by media and visual artists, OF provides a creative environment for artists to develop interaction applications.

It’s great to see the latest updates to the iPhone support. You can now more easily port OF applications to xCode, allowing publishing to the AppStore. There are already several apps in the App Store that are made with openFrameworks.

Here is what is included in the latest release:

Poco:
We are very excited to add the Poco library to the openFrameworks project. Poco is a powerful cross platform toolkit similar to the Java SDK, it includes a large base of network, file io, event and threading related code. It can be used to upload files and even send emails! In 006 we are using it for the new event system, but others have already been using it for developing addons like ofxHttpUtils. A big thanks to Erik Sjödin for pushing us in this direction as well as for his awesome Firmata implementation which is now part of the core.

Events:
The event system in 006 allows classes to register to receive core events (like mouse pressed, key pressed, draw, update etc). It also allows you to create and register your own custom events. The event system took a long time to get right. A huge thanks to Stefan Hechenberger who along with Arturo Castro spent many hours working on getting the right balance for the OF event system.

Glut abstraction:
Another big and much requested change was to remove OF’s dependence on the GLUT windowing toolkit. With 006 you can now chose which type of windowing system you want when you build your app. So far we have successfully run OF with a GLFW windowing system, an iPhone window and even no window (ie command line).

Base classes:
006 now has base classes (like ofDraws, ofUpdates ) which allow for more flexible object orientated programming.

One more thing……

iPhone support:
OF 006 can run on the iPhone!

This is largely due to the amazing work done by Lee Byron, Zach Gage, Memo Atken and Damian Stewart. Who have worked very hard to get openFrameworks running on the iPhone. A big shout out to them for their hard work!

The iPhone support is an ongoing process but most of the core functionality is there, including loading images, loading fonts, drawing graphics… There will soon be some guides on the wiki for getting started with OF on the iPhone but in the meantime check the 006 iPhone download on the downloads page and these guides bellow:

http://www.memo.tv/ofxiphone
http://www.jeffcrouse.info/uncategorized/openframeworks-on-iphone/

Detailed list of the changes here:
http://www.openframeworks.cc/changelog-v006

Download 006 here:
http://www.openframeworks.cc/download

For more information on openFrameworks visit the OF site.