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# Introduction

GLFW is a free, Open Source, multi-platform library for creating windows with OpenGL or OpenGL ES contexts and receiving many kinds of input. It is easy to integrate into existing applications and does not lay claim to the main loop.

See New features in 3.1 for release highlights or the version history for details.

Getting started is a guide for those new to GLFW. It takes you through how to write a small but complete program. For people coming from GLFW 2, the Moving from GLFW 2 to 3 guide explains what has changed and how to update existing code to use the new API.

There are guides for each of the various areas of the API.

- Introduction to the API – initialization, error handling and high-level design
- Window guide – creating and working with windows and framebuffers
- Context guide – working with OpenGL and OpenGL ES contexts
- Monitor guide – enumerating and working with monitors and video modes
- Input guide – receiving events, polling and processing input

Once you have written a program, see the Compiling GLFW and Building applications guides.

The reference documentation provides more detailed information about specific functions.

There is a section on Guarantees and limitations for pointer lifetimes, reentrancy, thread safety, event order and backward and forward compatibility.

The Oculus Rift guide fills in the gaps for how to use LibOVR with GLFW.

The FAQ answers many common questions about the design, implementation and use of GLFW.

Finally, the Standards conformance guide explains what APIs, standards and protocols GLFW uses and what happens when they are not present on a given machine.

This documentation was generated with Doxygen. The sources for it are available in both the source distribution and GitHub repository.