The OpenGL application binary interface (ABI) is frozen to OpenGL Version 1.1 on Windows. Unfortunately for Windows developers, that means that it is not possible to link directly to functions that are provided in newer versions of OpenGL. Instead, one must gain access to the OpenGL functions by acquiring a function pointer at runtime. Getting access to the function pointers is not difficult, but requires somewhat tedious work, and has a tendency to clutter code. Additionally, Windows typically comes with a standard OpenGL gl.h file that also conforms to OpenGL 1.1.
The OpenGL wiki states that Microsoft has no plans to ever update the gl.h and opengl32.lib that come with their ...
