Re:Single_file_libs: List of single-file C/C++ libraries
by junon on Monday October 26, 2020 @09:05AM
(#24895713)
This is a bit of a misunderstanding of the C++/C way of doing things. It makes sense in some ways but clearly there are better ways of doing it.
Which is precisely why C++20 has modules support.
Further, C++ does have a central package manager - whatever the system distributes. C/C++ programs constantly link against the operating system and thus have to get those system headers from somewhere. This means a universal package manager (like Conan) requires buy-in from OS vendors or at least someone who can manage those packages with conviction, else the package manager doesn't make a lot of sense to use.
This is contrast to Node, Ruby and Python as they are inherently Cross-Platform in nature and are not coupled tightly to the OS.
This is why C/C++, historically, have not had a strong centralized package manager.
Anymore, I see less and less package management being used anyway. Most C/C++ projects I work with either vendor in dependencies or use git submodules (the latter I prefer very much).
This is because, unlike e.g. the Node community, micro-dependencies are generally not worth the effort to bring in.
The usual exception to this sort of structure are codebases that will be distributed via a package manager - in which case, they generally rely on the package manager supplying correct versions of the dependencies.
These header-only libs work OK usually because they are able to be included with trivial linkage (something else you normally don't need to care about in scripting environments). Linkage is something you have to care about regardless of if you're writing C, C++ or machine code and since these languages give you pretty much free reign on the flexibility of all of these parameters, it's hard to generalize everything into a nice package like scripting languages can.
Usually the functions inside header only libraries will be static inline, and will almost certainly increase compilation time (noticeably so if you use the header in many places).
There is work being done to improve this situation, it's not like we're all just sitting here going "yes, we love the way things are and have no idea how to make things better." That's far from the case. Shit just takes time.
Which is precisely why C++20 has modules support.
Further, C++ does have a central package manager - whatever the system distributes. C/C++ programs constantly link against the operating system and thus have to get those system headers from somewhere. This means a universal package manager (like Conan) requires buy-in from OS vendors or at least someone who can manage those packages with conviction, else the package manager doesn't make a lot of sense to use.
This is contrast to Node, Ruby and Python as they are inherently Cross-Platform in nature and are not coupled tightly to the OS.
This is why C/C++, historically, have not had a strong centralized package manager.
Anymore, I see less and less package management being used anyway. Most C/C++ projects I work with either vendor in dependencies or use git submodules (the latter I prefer very much).
This is because, unlike e.g. the Node community, micro-dependencies are generally not worth the effort to bring in.
The usual exception to this sort of structure are codebases that will be distributed via a package manager - in which case, they generally rely on the package manager supplying correct versions of the dependencies.
These header-only libs work OK usually because they are able to be included with trivial linkage (something else you normally don't need to care about in scripting environments). Linkage is something you have to care about regardless of if you're writing C, C++ or machine code and since these languages give you pretty much free reign on the flexibility of all of these parameters, it's hard to generalize everything into a nice package like scripting languages can.
Usually the functions inside header only libraries will be static inline, and will almost certainly increase compilation time (noticeably so if you use the header in many places).
There is work being done to improve this situation, it's not like we're all just sitting here going "yes, we love the way things are and have no idea how to make things better." That's far from the case. Shit just takes time.