As a partial answer, I figured out how to use QGLFormat:penGLVersionFlags() to get the versions supported on my system. It shows that I support everything from 1.1 - 3.0 (which is what I expected). But the compiler doesn't recognize functions introduced from 2.0 on, so I could still use some help with specifying what version I want to use. I noticed references to glCreateShader in qglextensions.cpp, but I can't find anything in the documentation about that. Help, please.