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The lack of C or C++ build system makes me prefer header-only libraries, like nlohmann/json, entt, etc... I do also like easily embeddable tech like imgui, or

by linkdd 4y ago

The lack of C or C++ build system makes me prefer header-only libraries, like nlohmann/json, entt, etc... I do also like easily embeddable tech like imgui, or lua, where you can simply copy the source code in your source tree.

pjmlp 4y ago
If anything there are plenty of options. How come we have managed during the last 40 years?
- linkdd 4y ago
  I should have said: the lack of standardized build system. CMake is a pain, Bazel, vcpkg, autotools, plain old Makefiles, etc... All of them do not match the developer experience of npm, cargo, etc... Yeah we managed, I never said the opposite. I only talked about why I liked header-only libs: because I just copy/paste the source in my source tree, regardless of the build system I use. If I'm using CMake, and a library is using autotools, I'll have to rewrite the lib's build system, and maintain it. I'm too lazy for that.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    You should have installed it already via the OS package system, or the modern alternative, conan/vcpkg.
- flohofwoe 4y ago
  It was a massive pain in the butt in that time. Just try to intregrate a "standard library" like libjpeg or libpng into your cross-platform project. That's exactly why everybody has switched over to stb_image.h to quickly load image data without hassle.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Easy, have your "load/save_image" calls the OS provided APIs for image handling, while on UNIX assume the libjpeg-dev or libpng-dev are already installed via the OS package system, have the makefile targets adjusted as needed per platform. Nowadays, use cmake + conan/vcpkg as alternative as well. Do we need to spoon-feed everything?
    - flohofwoe 4y ago
      ...and with all this you just made everything a thousand times harder (and more brittle) than it needs to be. Integrating stb_image.h is literally just a single #include statement, no matter the platform, build system or dependency manager (if any).
      - pjmlp 4y ago
        Other than having someone keep track of it, across all projects it gets included, even if it gets vendored somewhere there is the issue with symbol duplication across binary libraries used across teams. Also it is a toy library in size, then there are those that can be used to stress test compilers.

by linkdd 4y ago

pjmlp 4y ago

If anything there are plenty of options. How come we have managed during the last 40 years?

linkdd 4y ago
I should have said: the lack of standardized build system. CMake is a pain, Bazel, vcpkg, autotools, plain old Makefiles, etc... All of them do not match the developer experience of npm, cargo, etc... Yeah we managed, I never said the opposite. I only talked about why I liked header-only libs: because I just copy/paste the source in my source tree, regardless of the build system I use. If I'm using CMake, and a library is using autotools, I'll have to rewrite the lib's build system, and maintain it. I'm too lazy for that.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  You should have installed it already via the OS package system, or the modern alternative, conan/vcpkg.
flohofwoe 4y ago
It was a massive pain in the butt in that time. Just try to intregrate a "standard library" like libjpeg or libpng into your cross-platform project. That's exactly why everybody has switched over to stb_image.h to quickly load image data without hassle.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Easy, have your "load/save_image" calls the OS provided APIs for image handling, while on UNIX assume the libjpeg-dev or libpng-dev are already installed via the OS package system, have the makefile targets adjusted as needed per platform. Nowadays, use cmake + conan/vcpkg as alternative as well. Do we need to spoon-feed everything?
  - flohofwoe 4y ago
    ...and with all this you just made everything a thousand times harder (and more brittle) than it needs to be. Integrating stb_image.h is literally just a single #include statement, no matter the platform, build system or dependency manager (if any).
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      Other than having someone keep track of it, across all projects it gets included, even if it gets vendored somewhere there is the issue with symbol duplication across binary libraries used across teams. Also it is a toy library in size, then there are those that can be used to stress test compilers.