libGimbal
C17-Based Extended Standard Library and Object-Oriented Type System
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Cross-Platform
·
Cross-Language
·
High Performance
Overview
libGimbal aims to bring the high-level constructs and niceties of modern languages and their standard libraries to low-level C and C++, where they can be implemented with a focus on performance for embedded devices and game consoles. libGimbal includes features typically found in core application frameworks such as Foundation, QtCore, or GLib, or in languages such as C# or Java. At its core, libGimbal utilizes an object-oriented dynamic type system, which allows C to transcend its own language limitations and provides a flexible avenue for interoperability with other languages. An idiomatic modern C++20-based API built around the core is also currently under development.
Features
libGimbal is split into a series of APIs, featuring:
- Containers and Data Structures
- Generic Algorithms
- Custom Allocators
- Specialized Strings
- Standard Library Utilities
- Preprocessor Programming
- Dynamic Type System
- Threading and Concurrency
- Unit Test Framework
Platforms
libGimbal is being actively tested in CI on the following targets:
- Windows
- MacOS
- Linux
- Sega Dreamcast
- Sony PSP
- Sony PSVita
- WebAssembly
- iOS
- Android
Compilers
libGimbal is being built in CI with the following compilers:
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- GCC
- Clang
- MinGW-w64
- Emscripten
Building
Building is done with standard CMake, and all generators and mainstream compilers should be supported. You should be able to open CMakeLists.txt directly as a project file in most IDEs such as MSVC, XCode, Qt Creator, CLion, etc if you wish to build from a UI.
First, ensure submodules are installed with:
git submodule update --init --recursive
To build the project and its unit tests from the command-line, you can do the following:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DGBL_ENABLE_TESTS=ON ..
cmake --build .
To build for Emscripten:
mkdir build
cd build
emcmake cmake -DGBL_ENABLE_TESTS=ON ..
cmake --build .
Bindings
LibGimbal was specifically written with language interoperability in mind. As such, we will be happy to support and feature bindings to your favorite language. The following is a list of libraries which offer bindings between libGimbal and other languages:
Library |
Language |
Status |
Jimbal |
Jai |
Complete support for the C API |
Gimbalsaurus |
Objective-C |
Just getting off the ground |
libGimbal |
C++ |
First-party within source-tree. Just starting, WIP. |
APIs
The following is a closer look at the contents of each API:
Core Framework
- platform-specific macros and utilities
- error and exception handling
- debug and verification utilities
- structured logging with filtering
- object-oriented threading and concurrency model
Strings
- specialized, optimized custom string types
- interned strings
- reference-counted strings
- string builders
- implicitly shared string lists
- pattern matching, regular expressions
Containers
- STL-style abstract data types with both C and C++ APIs
- dynamic arrays, lists, ring buffers
- sets, trees, hash tables, byte arrays
- support for custom allocators
Algorithms
- hashing algorithms (Murmur, Sip, Fnv1, SuperFast, Jenkins, etc)
- sorting algorithms, searching algorithms
- random data generators and utilities
- CRC, parity, LCM, GCD, prime numbers
- SHA1 and MD5 (semi)cryptographic hashing
Allocators
- allocation trackers with leak detection
- paged arena allocators with state rewinding
- stack-based scope allocator with destructor chains
- efficient pool-based, arena-backed allocator
Preprocessor
- function overloading support for C
- macro compositon, variadic argument handling
- cross-language C/C++ generic selection
- meta macro programming constructs
Meta Type System
- cross-language, extensible object-oriented type system
- generic, polymorphic variant types with type conversions
- virtual functions, inheritance, private members for C
- mixins, interfaces, abstract classes
- generic FFI with cross-language closures and marshals
- property system
- Qt/GTk style signal system
- object hierarchy management, parenting, traversals
- event handling, filtering, propagation
- plugin and module system
Utilities
- generic reference-counted types
- command-line option and argument parsing
- version, UUID, date-time utilities
- user-settings management
Unit Testing Framework
- cross-platform object-oriented C-based unit test framework
- test scenarios, suites, cases
- generic verification macros with source context capture
- automatic timing and performance measurements
- memory utilization and leak detection
- dynamic/run-time test-plan construction and management
Credits
Author
Falco Girgis ([email protected])
Dependencies
- GblHashSet and GblTreeSet original back-ends: Josh Baker (tidwall)
- GblThread TinyCThreads back-end: Marcus Geelnard, Evan Nemerson
- gblHashSip(…): Jean-Philippe Amasson, Daniel J. Bernstein
- gblHashMurmur(…): Austin Appleby
- GblDateTime_parse(…) strptime back-end: Based on musl C stdlib Implementation
- GblPattern matching engine back-end: tiny-regex-c
- GblSha1 SHA1 hashing back-end: Steve Reid (Public Domain)
- GblMd5 MD5 hashing back-end: RSA Data Security, Inc.
- gblRandom LRG generator and statistical distributions: Steve Park, Keith Miller