al_register_bitmap_loader(3alleg5)

💖 al_register_bitmap_loader 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page straight out of the Allegro reference manual — specifically the Allegro 5 API — and it's about teaching Allegro how to open your weird little image formats. no cap. ✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro5/allegro.h>

bool al_register_bitmap_loader(const char *extension,
   ALLEGRO_BITMAP *(*loader)(const char *filename, int flags))

like… look at that signature. it's giving function-pointer-ception. 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what this does is register a handler for al_load_bitmap(3alleg5). that's it, that's the whole vibe. the function you hand over will be the one that handles the loading of bitmap files with the given extension. so when Allegro sees that extension, it's gonna call your loader instead of being confused and sad. 💅

a couple of things you literally cannot skip:

• the extension should include the leading dot (.) character. yes, the dot. don't forget the dot. it's iconic and it matters. 🎀
• it will be matched case-insensitively, so .PNG and .png are the same thing to it. slay.

and here's the fun part — the loader argument may be NULL to unregister an entry. so passing NULL is how you say "actually nvm, forget that one." 😭

it returns true on success and false on error. and lowkey important: it returns false if you're unregistering an entry that doesn't exist. so like, you can't unregister a vibe that was never registered. periodt.

ngl, if you get false back, check your extension first. the dot. always the dot. 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• al_register_bitmap_saver(3alleg5)
• al_register_bitmap_loader_f(3alleg5)

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that's the whole page, bestie, go forth and register those loaders 👑✨ this was al_register_bitmap_loader(3alleg5) from the Allegro reference manual — mwah, take care of her 🫶💖🌸