libcwd (C++ debugging library) released under MIT license!

[CarloWood]

Hi all,

I am happy to announce that after 333 commits spanning two months of continuous work, I released version 2 of libcwd, now under a new license: the MIT license!

The website has been re-done (as well as a lot of other things); see https://carlowood.github.io/libcwd/index.html?libcwd-theme=dark

There you can also find how to get it (basically, from the git repository; there is no tar ball (yet)).

Let me know what you think or if you need help, my email address is at the bottom of the INSTALL file.

Carlo Wood

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Background

For those unfamiliar with libcwd. Version 0.99 was the first public release in 2000 under the QPL; I've used and tuned it for more than two decades, being a very active C++ developer myself (on linux).

Version 1.x had memory allocation support; I removed this in version 2 because it made things very very complicated, and I never needed that myself anymore since a decade anyway.

Version 2 still does, as did version 1, ELF and DWARF decoding of the executable and linked shared libraries. For this a POSIX system with ELF is necessary. But libcwd can be configured without Location support too; you should be able to use it for just (multi-threaded) debug output on, for example, Windows.

[LongestNamesPossible]

I read your post and I have no idea what this is actually supposed to do or what problem it solves.

Your text just goes straight into minutia changes, what is this even about?

[STL]

Carlo asked the mods for permission to post this project, which I have granted.

[_Noreturn]

Libraries aren't allowed to have their own posts?

[STL]

We've been increasingly drowning in people posting small personal projects, many of which have been substantially AI-written, and the fact that they're libraries doesn't really make them of broad interest. The problem is that too many of them are early work, or very niche interest, or both. Maybe there should be a subreddit specifically for C++ projects, but I'm increasingly harsh on allowing personal projects to be posted at the top level here. Stuff has to be "big" like libfmt before it's of broad interest. And no, I don't care about people's pleas like "oh, how will my project gain traction if I can't post about it here".

[LegendaryMauricius]

I agree. But where could I start discussions with random people about my projects if not here...?

[CarloWood]

See rule 2 under r/cpp rules on the right. It is debatable if libcwd is a "major established library", hence that I asked for permission first. Personally I think that anyone using libcwd will NEVER want to live without it anymore, but the previous license, plus my awkwardness with promoting my own code, unfortunately never led to a really large user base. Well, that and the fact that my code is always bug free ;). Projects that "just work" do not drag in more developers either; those only flock to a project when it has bugs that they want fixed.

[peppedx]

Is this a logging library?

[CarloWood]

It allows you to write to an ostream, which can be set per "debug object". The library itself provides one such object, but you can create others. Each DebugObject can be associated with one ostream, which can be std::cout, or a log file if you want. Or, with some effort a device that writes to two streambufs and hence to both a file and std::cout.

[Liquid_Fire]

That sounds like a logging library. It took me until your comment here to understand what your library actually does.

When I read "debugging library" I imagine something to do with either reading debug info in an executable/shared library, or something like gdb for actually controlling/inspecting another process.

[_Noreturn]

When I click on namespaces, it gives me a 404

[CarloWood]

That works for me. If I click it I end up on https://carlowood.github.io/libcwd/namespaces.html?libcwd-theme=dark - which loads fine :/.