Question

int main( int argc, char* args[] )
{
    if( SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING) < 0 )
        std::cout<<"unable to init sdl";
    SDL_Surface *screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(800,600,32,SDL_DOUBLEBUF);
    std::cout<<"before while\n";
    SDL_Event event;
    while(SDL_PollEvent(&event))
        {
            std::cout<<"in while\n";
            if(event.type == SDL_QUIT)
                std::cout<<"SDL_QUIT\n";
        }
    std::cout<<"after while\n";
    SDL_Quit();
}

For some unknown reason this SDL app quits after running in the while loop 4 times without me killing/closing/etc it and without printing “SDL_QUIT” to stdout.
Is there a reason for this? How do I fix it?

Answer 1

You need to keep your application alive by creating a main loop for it. As of now, your application just quits after you poll all the initial events:

int main( int argc, char* args[] )
{
    if( SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING) < 0 )
        std::cout<<"unable to init sdl";
    SDL_Surface *screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(800,600,32,SDL_DOUBLEBUF);
    SDL_Event event;
    bool active = true;
    while(active)
    {
        while(SDL_PollEvent(&event))
        {
            if(event.type == SDL_QUIT)
            {
                std::cout<<"SDL_QUIT\n";
                active = false;
            }
        }
        // TODO:  add drawing to screen
        SDL_Flip(screen);
    }
    SDL_Quit();
}