You cannot select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and dots ('.'), can be up to 35 characters long. Letters must be lowercase.
121 lines
4.9 KiB
121 lines
4.9 KiB
|
|
FAQ |
|
--- |
|
|
|
#### What's the license? |
|
|
|
These libraries are in the public domain. You can do anything you |
|
want with them. You have no legal obligation |
|
to do anything else, although I appreciate attribution. |
|
|
|
They are also licensed under the MIT open source license, if you have lawyers |
|
who are unhappy with public domain. Every source file includes an explicit |
|
dual-license for you to choose from. |
|
|
|
#### <a name="other_libs"></a> Are there other single-file public-domain/open source libraries with minimal dependencies out there? |
|
|
|
[Yes.](https://github.com/nothings/single_file_libs) |
|
|
|
#### If I wrap an stb library in a new library, does the new library have to be public domain/MIT? |
|
|
|
No, because it's public domain you can freely relicense it to whatever license your new |
|
library wants to be. |
|
|
|
#### What's the deal with SSE support in GCC-based compilers? |
|
|
|
stb_image will either use SSE2 (if you compile with -msse2) or |
|
will not use any SIMD at all, rather than trying to detect the |
|
processor at runtime and handle it correctly. As I understand it, |
|
the approved path in GCC for runtime-detection require |
|
you to use multiple source files, one for each CPU configuration. |
|
Because stb_image is a header-file library that compiles in only |
|
one source file, there's no approved way to build both an |
|
SSE-enabled and a non-SSE-enabled variation. |
|
|
|
While we've tried to work around it, we've had multiple issues over |
|
the years due to specific versions of gcc breaking what we're doing, |
|
so we've given up on it. See https://github.com/nothings/stb/issues/280 |
|
and https://github.com/nothings/stb/issues/410 for examples. |
|
|
|
#### Some of these libraries seem redundant to existing open source libraries. Are they better somehow? |
|
|
|
Generally they're only better in that they're easier to integrate, |
|
easier to use, and easier to release (single file; good API; no |
|
attribution requirement). They may be less featureful, slower, |
|
and/or use more memory. If you're already using an equivalent |
|
library, there's probably no good reason to switch. |
|
|
|
#### Can I link directly to the table of stb libraries? |
|
|
|
You can use [this URL](https://github.com/nothings/stb#stb_libs) to link directly to that list. |
|
|
|
#### Why do you list "lines of code"? It's a terrible metric. |
|
|
|
Just to give you some idea of the internal complexity of the library, |
|
to help you manage your expectations, or to let you know what you're |
|
getting into. While not all the libraries are written in the same |
|
style, they're certainly similar styles, and so comparisons between |
|
the libraries are probably still meaningful. |
|
|
|
Note though that the lines do include both the implementation, the |
|
part that corresponds to a header file, and the documentation. |
|
|
|
#### Why single-file headers? |
|
|
|
Windows doesn't have standard directories where libraries |
|
live. That makes deploying libraries in Windows a lot more |
|
painful than open source developers on Unix-derivates generally |
|
realize. (It also makes library dependencies a lot worse in Windows.) |
|
|
|
There's also a common problem in Windows where a library was built |
|
against a different version of the runtime library, which causes |
|
link conflicts and confusion. Shipping the libs as headers means |
|
you normally just compile them straight into your project without |
|
making libraries, thus sidestepping that problem. |
|
|
|
Making them a single file makes it very easy to just |
|
drop them into a project that needs them. (Of course you can |
|
still put them in a proper shared library tree if you want.) |
|
|
|
Why not two files, one a header and one an implementation? |
|
The difference between 10 files and 9 files is not a big deal, |
|
but the difference between 2 files and 1 file is a big deal. |
|
You don't need to zip or tar the files up, you don't have to |
|
remember to attach *two* files, etc. |
|
|
|
#### Why "stb"? Is this something to do with Set-Top Boxes? |
|
|
|
No, they are just the initials for my name, Sean T. Barrett. |
|
This was not chosen out of egomania, but as a moderately sane |
|
way of namespacing the filenames and source function names. |
|
|
|
#### Will you add more image types to stb_image.h? |
|
|
|
If people submit them, I generally add them, but the goal of stb_image |
|
is less for applications like image viewer apps (which need to support |
|
every type of image under the sun) and more for things like games which |
|
can choose what images to use, so I may decline to add them if they're |
|
too rare or if the size of implementation vs. apparent benefit is too low. |
|
|
|
#### Do you have any advice on how to create my own single-file library? |
|
|
|
Yes. https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt |
|
|
|
#### Why public domain? |
|
|
|
I prefer it over GPL, LGPL, BSD, zlib, etc. for many reasons. |
|
Some of them are listed here: |
|
https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/why_public_domain.md |
|
|
|
#### Why C? |
|
|
|
Primarily, because I use C, not C++. But it does also make it easier |
|
for other people to use them from other languages. |
|
|
|
#### Why not C99? stdint.h, declare-anywhere, etc. |
|
|
|
I still use MSVC 6 (1998) as my IDE because it has better human factors |
|
for me than later versions of MSVC. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|