well I went to the bookstore with my code and traced out every line of code in the Update function which is called by the glutTimerFunc function. this is where my problem lies. what I want is that the positionY variable to count  up to 25.0f and then count back down to 0.0f. I am  also  using the velocityY variable to count up and down depending on where the positionY variable is located. I am also going to debug my code and see it is actually working. 

On 10/2/2019 at 12:58 PM, Prototype said:

You're moving in the right direction, Phil

Agreed. This feels much better, with the start of logical groupings. Emphasis could be put back on managing state as @Prototype suggests with the onGround variable. One design here would be a controller(manager) for your objects that makes per frame pre-defined checks. Another design would be the object adjusts state based on it's own data (closer to what you seem to be trying to do).  As your game systems mature, it becomes a mix.  Although I understand that, case in point is currently a logic error, I though it might be positive to lean the discussion to overall design first instead of our pattern of one little piece missing. I also like that @phil67rpg is trying to make better descriptions. During your posts, spend some more time on expressing your things as @Rutin suggests. A lot more words. Don't worry if what you write is wrong. I think that would do two things. One, you may answer your own question in the process of trying to describe it completely (at which point the programmer in you can bloom) or the other, where we'll see where you are failing quicker.

With that said, the glut thing...I can understand the draw to this being also from the era. A few great frameworks (like the old F. Luna stuff) used it and probably survived time to be picked up again and again. I didn't because I was anti-everything back then  but have tried more than a handful of the options. GLFW I liked, but I timed it against a raw OGL startup and doing input handling with the same ~80,000 vertices or so test (hmp...something) and it was measurably working harder (~15-20+%) somewhere in GLFW. Easy to get up and going with. SFML was okay, I'm not sure I gave it a fair chance. Currently I'm using SDL which is interesting if you like gluing together libraries as I do. Those are my C++ choices. For C#, I reach for monogame or Unity for fun. GoDot is the next on my list but runs funny on my (much) older system, so that fun is waiting for an upgrade.  

edit;p I thought I might add one last thing...perhaps you might consider tracking your distance off the ground and doing a hard reaction/reset crossing zero..that might be interesting info. Also when i jump, all I do is give my object thing an impulse. (in whatever direction) fire it. forget it. All my dynamic objects, all the time, have a downward attraction. The fight then becomes when you are on the ground (falling through or wiggle with extreme purpose  or better yet, do nothing at all)

Then again...a dozen more approaches are valid. 

if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_DOWN && 
    key_jump == false && onGround == true) // <-- and allow this state
{
	// fire the jump impulse action here and forget it

	key_jump = true; 
}

I am reading up on game loops and timing steps I see that gaming algorithms  have been around for quite some time. I am learning about timing and frames.

Just by looking at your code, i don't know how often key precesses are processed. Likely while the timer is used to wait for the next update, the keys may be processed multiple times, which makes it hard to imagine what's going on. (Here logging to a text file can give better understanding than using the debugger.)

To get rid of such issues and doubts, you could use your own tracking of input, and process the resulting events in your update to sync all this, e.g. like so (I don't understand the need for EndJump, so it's no longer used here):

bool onGround = false;
bool key_jump = false;

void StartJump()
{
	if (onGround)
	{
		velocityY = -12.0f;
		onGround = false;
	}
}

void EndJump()
{
	if (velocityY < -6.0f)
	{
		velocityY = -6.0f;
	}
}

void Update()
{
    if (key_jump) StartJump();
                          
	velocityY += gravity;
	positionY += velocityY;
	positionX += velocityX;
	if (positionY > 25.0f)
	{
		positionY = 0.0f;
		velocityY = 0.0f;
		onGround = false;
	}
}

void Loop(int val)
{
	Update();
	drawSprite();
	glutPostRedisplay();
	glutTimerFunc(33, Loop, 0);
}

void mouseClicks(int button, int state, int x, int y)
{
	if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_DOWN)
	{
		//StartJump();
    	key_jump = true;
	}
	if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_UP)
	{
		//EndJump();
      	key_jump = false;
	}
}

void handleKeypress(unsigned char key, int x, int y)
{
	switch (key)
	{
	case 27:
		exit(0);
		break;
	case 32:
		Loop(0);
		break;

If this works, there is still a problem: If the user presses the key only for a short duration, the bool might be set AND unset BEFORE the update is called, so it misses the desired jump. This could be fixed in many ways, for example by sing multiple flags to track both button down and button up events seperately. 

1 hour ago, JoeJ said:

if (positionY > 25.0f) { positionY = 0.0f;

Spotted a bug, must be either

if(y>25) y=25

or 

if(y>0) y=0 

?

thanks joe, I am have changed my code, it  jumps up to 25.0f and  stays there, I will work on it some more.

bool onGround = false;
bool key_jump = false;

void StartJump()
{
	if (onGround)
	{
		velocityY = -12.0f;
		onGround = false;
	}
}

void EndJump()
{
	if (velocityY < -6.0f)
	{
		velocityY = -6.0f;
	}
}

void Update()
{
	if (key_jump)
		StartJump();
		velocityY += gravity;
		positionY += velocityY;
		positionX += velocityX;
		if (positionY > 25.0f)
		{
			positionY = 25.0f;
			velocityY = 0.0f;
			onGround = false;
		}
}

void Loop(int val)
{
	Update();
	drawSprite();
	glutPostRedisplay();
	glutTimerFunc(33, Loop, 0);
}

void mouseClicks(int button, int state, int x, int y)
{
	if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_DOWN)
	{
		key_jump=true;
	}
	if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_UP)
	{
		key_jump=false;
	}
}

void handleKeypress(unsigned char key, int x, int y)
{
	switch (key)
	{
	case 27:
		exit(0);
		break;
	case 32:
		Loop(0);
		break;

Don't call Loop() when the spacebar is pressed, this function is called repetitively by glutTimerFunc.

Right now you are starting a new jump over and over when key_jump is true, you only want to call that when a jump starts. Note that your forgot the braces on your if(key_jump) clause. Also, you don't need a dedicated action to stop jumping, this condition will automatically be met when you hit the ground.

I reworked your code a little to reflect these changes.

bool onGround = false;


void StartJump()
{
    if (onGround)
    {
        velocityY = -12.0f;
        onGround = false;
    }
}


void Update()
{
    velocityY += gravity;
    positionY += velocityY;
    positionX += velocityX;
    if (positionY > 25.0f)
    {
        positionY = 25.0f;
        velocityY = 0.0f;
        onGround = true;
    }
}

void Loop()
{
    Update();
    drawSprite();
    glutPostRedisplay();
    glutTimerFunc(33, Loop, 0);
}

void mouseClicks(int button, int state, int x, int y)
{
    if (button == GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON && state == GLUT_DOWN)
    {
        StartJump();
    }
}

void handleKeypress(unsigned char key, int x, int y)
{
    switch (key)
    {
        case 27:
            exit(0);
            break;
        }
    }
}