OpenGL Programming Guide

Appendix AOrder of Operations

Geometric Operations

Geometric data, whether it comes from a display list, an evaluator, the vertices of a rectangle, or as raw data, consists of a set of vertices and the type of primitive it describes (a vertex, line, or polygon). Vertex data includes not only the (x, y, z, w) coordinates, but also a normal vector, texture coordinates, a color or index, and edge-flag data. All these elements except the vertex's coordinates can be specified in any order, and default values exist as well. As soon as the vertex command glVertex*() is issued, the components are padded, if necessary, to four dimensions (using z = 0 and w = 1), and the current values of all the elements are associated with the vertex. The complete set of vertex data is then processed.

Per-Vertex Operations
Primitive Assembly

OpenGL Programming Guide