Vertex Formats

It's possible that you have a complex scene with different objects having different formats. Perhaps we should call it layout instead of format since this topic is not about using float or int or unsigned int.

Some objects might just need vertices and texcoords.
Padding is added to make the vertex structure a multiple of 32 bytes since some GPUs prefer it that way, such as ATI/AMD.

 struct Vertex_VT
 {
  float x, y, z;
  float s0, t0;
  float padding[3];
 };

Some objects might need vertex, normals, texcoords. This struct is already multiple of 32 bytes.

 struct Vertex_VNT
 {
  float x, y, z;
  float nx, ny, nz;
  float s0, t0;
 };

What you could do is

 if(object_needs == VT)
 {
  glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), xxx);
  glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), zzz);
  //Notice that we must disable normals
  glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
 }
 else if(object_needs == VNT)
 {
  glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), xxx);
  glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
  glNormalPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), yyy);
  glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), zzz);
 }

or to reduce further the number of calls to make

 if(object_needs == VT)
 {
  //glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);  //already enabled
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), xxx);
  //glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);   //already enabled
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), zzz);
  //Notice that would must disable normals
  glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
 }
 else if(object_needs == VNT)
 {
  //glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);  //already enabled
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), xxx);
  glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
  glNormalPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), yyy);
  //glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);   //already enabled
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), zzz);
 }

To further reduce the number of calls to make

 if(object_needs != presentVertexFormat)
 {
  presentVertexFormat=object_needs;
  if(object_needs == VT)
  {
    glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
    glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), xxx);
    glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), zzz);
  }
  else
  {
    glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
    glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), xxx);
    glNormalPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), yyy);
    glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), zzz);
  }
 }
 else if(object_needs == presentVertexFormat)
 {
 if (object_needs == VT)
 {
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), xxx);
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VT), zzz);
 }
 else if(object_needs == VNT)
 {
  glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), xxx);
  glNormalPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), yyy);
  glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(Vertex_VNT), zzz);
 }
 }

So now we have introduced the concept of vertex formats in our application and we keep track of the current format with presentVertexFormat.