2014-05-30 22:15:51 +01:00
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FAQ
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#### What's the license?
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These libraries are in the public domain (or the equivalent where that is not
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possible). You can do anything you want with them. You have no legal obligation
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to do anything else, although I appreciate attribution.
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#### If I wrap an stb library in a new library, does the new library have to be public domain?
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No.
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#### A lot of these libraries seem redundant to existing open source libraries. Are they better somehow?
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Generally they're only better in that they're easier to integrate,
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easier to use, and easier to release (single file; good API; no
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attribution requirement). They may be less featureful, slower,
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and/or use more memory. If you're already using an equivalent
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library, there's probably no good reason to switch.
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2015-04-14 11:03:11 +01:00
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#### Why do you list "lines of code"? It's a terrible metric.
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Just to give you some idea of the internal complexity of the library,
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to help you manage your expectations, or to let you know what you're
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getting into. While not all the libraries are written in the same
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style, they're certainly similar styles, and so comparisons between
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the libraries are probably still meaningful.
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Note though that the lines do include both the implementation, the
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part that corresponds to a header file, and the documentation.
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2015-02-01 10:49:36 +00:00
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#### Why single-file headers?
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Windows doesn't have standard directories where libraries
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live. That makes deploying libraries in Windows a lot more
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painful than open source developers on Unix-derivates generally
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realize. (It also makes library dependencies a lot worse in Windows.)
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Making them a single file makes it very easy to just
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drop them into a project that needs them. (Of course you can
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still put them in a proper shared library tree if you want.)
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The difference between 10 files and 9 files is not a big deal,
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but the difference between 2 files and 1 file is a big deal.
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2014-05-30 22:15:51 +01:00
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#### Why "stb"? Is this something to do with Set-Top Boxes?
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No, they are just the initials for my name, Sean T. Barrett.
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This was not chosen out of egomania, but as a semi-robust
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way of namespacing the filenames and source function names.
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#### Will you add more image types to stb_image.c?
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If people submit them, I generally add them, but the goal of stb_image
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is less for applications like image viewer apps (which need to support
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every type of image under the sun) and more for things like games which
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can choose what images to use, so I may decline to add them if they're
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too rare or if the size of implementation vs. apparent benefit is too low.
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#### Are there other single-file public-domain libraries out there?
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Yes. I'll put a list here when people remind me what they are.
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#### Do you have any advice on how to create my own single-file library?
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2014-05-30 22:20:16 +01:00
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Yes. https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt
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2014-05-30 22:15:51 +01:00
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#### Why public domain?
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Because more people will use it. Because it's not viral, people
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are not obligated to give back, so you could argue that it hurts
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the *development* of it, and then because it doesn't develop as
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well it's not as good, and then because it's not as good, in the
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long run maybe fewer people will use it. I have total respect for
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that opinion, but I just don't believe it myself for most software.
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#### Why C?
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Primarily, because I use C, not C++. But it does also make it easier
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for other people to use them from other languages.
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#### Why not C99? stdint.h, declare-anywhere, etc.
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I still use MSVC 6 (1998) as my IDE because it has better human factors
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for me than later versions of MSVC.
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