I've looked around and couldn't really find an answer. What is the difference between Allegro 4 & 5? I realize there will be command difference and graphics handling difference but I was under the impression that 5 was geared towards event driven programming (like visual c++) where 4 was geared towards more of a starting with main top down kind of programming?

Am I close or totally out in left field? I'm thinking of graduating on but didn't want to learn a whole new flow. Took me a while to move between C and old GWbasic years ago .

Thx
Ace

Allegro 5 is written in C and can be used with C perfectly. It's event driven, yes, but I don't think it's much like Visual C++ style of events you use when using Forms.

The main difference is support for hardware acceleration. Allegro 5 uses OpenGL or DirectX (depending on your system/choice) and is thus hardware accelerated "out of the box". It also has support for compression using PhysicsFS, various audio formats, images, video playback, primitives, shaders, TrueType fonts, threads... It's almost too much to list.

You can't really compare 4 and 5. Allegro 5 is a beast. For a relatively simple, not too graphics intensive game, sure, go ahead and use Allegro 4, it's a wonderful experience. But for anything serious, you'd want to go with 5, because that is the one being actively developed and is supported.

Thx for all of the advice. I currently use 4.4.2(?) and have a game about ready. For the next one I'll install Allegro 5. As Vanetto mentioned, I don't written anything hard core yet so all of the OpenGL type stuff I haven't use to this point. Actually 4.4.2 works pretty well for me but in the spirit of improving and wanting to get away from console mouse free simple programs, I think I'll graduate on.

Thx again
Ace

I only want people to be aware of the disadvantages / limitations. If you're well-informed and still find it the better choice in your situation, go ahead, and welcome

I'm developing a game specifically for DOS But I realize that I'm the odd one here, the only reason I'm doing it is because I think it's an interesting challenge, and as a sort of homage to the old 90s PC games I grew up with. So naturally I use Allegro 4.

I guess I could still recompile it for modern platforms as long as I keep compatibility in mind though. But if I wasn't doing such an obscure project, I would definitely be using Allegro 5 instead.

-1. Next question.

I think that there's a certain kind of purity to the simpler time of old... I can only dream about being a programmer in the 70s working with UNIX and C in a time when they were new and bleeding edge! I worked my way through an x86 assembler tutorial and it was a lot of fun. It's somewhat surprising what you can accomplish in assembly even today. It's not terribly difficult. That said, you don't gain much from it other than ego and nostalgia.

Basically Allegro 4 = Allegro Classic and Allegro 5 = Allegro for Contemporary platforms. I'd say the only reason these days to use Allegro 4 these days is if you want to make retro games for DOS for some reason. For all other uses I strongly recommend Allegro 5 which is somewhat more complex but a lot more powerful and better supported.