title: Do rectangle textures really require the GL_ARB_TEXTURE_RECTANGLE extension in OpenGL 4.3?
body: <p>I'm looking for the best (as in "most natural" or "most efficient") way to render simple images pixel-by-pixel using modern OpenGL.</p>
  
  <p>Since I do not want mip-mapping, I turned to rectangle textures as the - as I presumed - natural choice for this task.</p>
  
  <p>I was surprised however that <code>glCompileShader()</code> refuses to accept my call to <code>texture2DRect()</code> in the fragment shader unless I enable the extension <code>GL_ARB_TEXTURE_RECTANGLE</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I wasn't expecting that, as I'm using modern OpenGL (I'm specifying <code>#version 430</code>) and the OpenGL reference sheet at <a href="https://www.khronos.org/files/opengl44-quick-reference-card.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.khronos.org/files/opengl44-quick-reference-card.pdf</a> does not mention the need for an extension.</p>
  
  <p>To add to the confusion, the shader compiler accepts my uniform declaration <code>uniform sampler2DRect sampler;</code> without even a warning.</p>
  
  <p>Is this a bug in my OpenGL driver? (I'm running version 340.52 of the NVidia driver on Windows 8.1, on a GeForce GTX 760).</p>