Awesome C/C++¶

A curated list of awesome C/C++ frameworks, libraries, resources, and shiny things. Inspired by awesome-... stuff.

Standard Libraries¶

C++ Standard Library - including STL Containers, STL Aglorithm, STL Functional, etc.

C++ Standard Library - A collection of classes and functions, which are written in the core language and part of the C++ ISO Standard itself.
Standard Template Library - The Standard Template Library (STL).
C POSIX library - A specification of a C standard library for POSIX systems.

Frameworks¶

C++ generic frameworks and libraries.

Apache C++ Standard Library - A collection of algorithms, containers, iterators, and other fundamental components.
ASL - Adobe Source Libraries provides peer-reviewed and portable C++ source libraries.
Boost - A large collection of generic C++ libraries.
BDE - The BDE Development Environment from Bloomberg Labs.
Cinder - A community-developed, free and open source library for professional-quality creative coding.
Cxxomfort - A small, header-only library that backports to C++03 some of the nifty C++11 goodies.
Dlib - A general purpose cross-platform C++ library designed using contract programming and modern C++ techniques.
ffead-cpp - Framework for Enterprise Application Development.
Folly - An open-source C++ library developed and used at Facebook.
JUCE - An all-encompassing C++ class library for developing cross-platform software.
libPhenom - libPhenom is an eventing framework for building high performance and high scalability systems in C.
LibSourcey - C++11 evented IO for real-time video streaming and high performance networking applications.
LibU - A multiplatform utility library written in C.
Loki - A C++ library of designs, containing flexible implementations of common design patterns and idioms.
MiLi - Minimal headers-only C++ Library.
openFrameworks - An open source C++ toolkit for creative coding.
Qt - A cross-platform application and UI framework.
Reason - A cross platform framework designed to bring the ease of use of Java, .Net, or Python to developers who require the performance and strength of C++.
STXXL - Standard Template Library for Extra Large Data Sets.
Ultimate++ - A C++ cross-platform rapid application development framework.
Windows Template Library - A C++ library for developing Windows applications and UI components.
Yomm11 - Open multi-methods for C++11.

Artificial Intelligence¶

Evolving Objects - A template-based, ANSI-C++ evolutionary computation library which helps you to write your own stochastic optimization algorithms insanely fast.
Neu - A C++ 11 framework, collection of programming languages, and multipurpose software system designed for: the creation of artificial intelligence applications.

Asynchronous Event Loop¶

Boost.Asio - A cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming.
libev - A full-featured and high-performance event loop that is loosely modelled after libevent, but without its limitations and bugs.
libevent - An event notification library.
libuv - Cross-platform asychronous I/O.

Audio¶

Audio, Sound, Music, Digitized Voice Libraries

Maximilian - C++ Audio and Music DSP Library.

Compression¶

Compression and Archiving Libraries

bzip2 - A freely available, patent free, high-quality data compressor.
LZ4 - Extremely Fast Compression algorithm.
LZMA - The default and general compression method of 7z format.
miniz - Single C source file Deflate/Inflate compression library with zlib-compatible API, ZIP archive reading/writing, PNG writing.
Minizip - Zlib with latest bug fixes that supports PKWARE disk spanning, AES encryption, and IO buffering.
Snappy - A fast compressor/decompressor.
ZLib - A very compact compression library for data streams.
ZZIPlib - Provides read access on ZIP-archives.

Concurrency¶

Boost.Compute - A C++ GPU Computing Library for OpenCL.
Bolt - A C++ template library optimized for GPUs.
Intel TBB - Intel® Threading Building Blocks.
OpenCL - The open standard for parallel programming of heterogeneous systems.
OpenMP - The OpenMP API.
Thrust - A parallel algorithms library which resembles the C++ Standard Template Library (STL).
HPX - A general purpose C++ runtime system for parallel and distributed applications of any scale.
VexCL - A C++ vector expression template library for OpenCL/CUDA.

Containers¶

C++ B-tree - A template library that implements ordered in-memory containers based on a B-tree data structure.

Cryptography¶

Cryptography and Encryption Libraries

Crypto++ - A free C++ class library of cryptographic schemes.
LibTomCrypt - A fairly comprehensive, modular and portable cryptographic toolkit.
libsodium - P(ortable|ackageable) NaCl-based crypto library, opinionated and easy to use.
OpenSSL - A robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source cryptography library.

Database¶

Database Libraries, SQL Servers, ODBC Drivers, and Tools

hiberlite - C++ Object-relational mapping for sqlite3.
LMDB - Very fast embedded key/value store with full ACID semantics.
SQLite - A completely embedded, full-featured relational database in a few 100k that you can include right into your project.

Debug¶

Debugging Libraries, Memory Leak and Resource Leak Detection, Unit Testing

CppUnit - C++ port of JUnit.
googletest - Google C++ Testing Framework.

Game Engine¶

Cocos2d-x - A multi-platform framework for building 2d games, interactive books, demos and other graphical applications.
Irrlicht - An open source high performance realtime 3D engine written in C++.
Polycode - Open-Source Framework for creating games in C++ (with Lua bindings)..

GUI¶

Graphic User Interface

GTK+ - A multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.
gtkmm - The official C++ interface for the popular GUI library GTK+.
libRocket - libRocket is a C++ HTML/CSS game interface middleware.
Ncurses - A terminal user interfaces.
Qwt - Qt Widgets for Technical Applications.
QwtPlot3D - A feature-rich Qt/OpenGL-based C++ programming library, providing essentially a bunch of 3D-widgets.
wxWidgets - A C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other platforms with a single code base.

Graphics¶

Cairo - A 2D graphics library with support for multiple output devices.
CImg - A small, open source, C++ toolkit for image processing.
Ogre 3D - A scene-oriented, real-time, flexible 3D rendering engine (as opposed to a game engine) written in C++.
Panda3D - A framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++ .
Skia - A 2D Graphics Library.

Internationalization¶

IBM ICU - A set of C/C++ and Java libraries providing Unicode and Globalization support.
gettext - GNU `gettext’.

JSON¶

frozen - :star: 20+ - JSON parser and generator for C/C++.
Jansson - :star: 650+ - C library for encoding, decoding and manipulating JSON data.
jbson - :star: <10 - jbson is a library for building & iterating BSON data, and JSON documents in C++14.
JeayeSON - :star: 10+ - A very sane (header only) C++ JSON library.
JSON++ - :star: 130+ - A JSON parser in C++.
json11 - :star: 290+ - A tiny JSON library for C++11.
PicoJSON - :star: 170+ - A header-file-only, JSON parser serializer in C++.
qt-json - :star: 120+ - A simple class for parsing JSON data into a QVariant hierarchy and vice versa.
RapidJSON - :star: 170+ - A fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with both SAX/DOM style API.
YAJL - :star: 1,100+ - A fast streaming JSON parsing library in C.

Logging¶

Log4cpp - A library of C++ classes for flexible logging to files, syslog, IDSA and other destinations.
templog - A very small and lightweight C++ library which you can use to add logging to your C++ applications.

Machine Learning¶

Caffe - A fast framework for neural networks.
CCV - C-based/Cached/Core Computer Vision Library, A Modern Computer Vision Library.
mlpack - A scalable c++ machine learning library.
OpenCV - Open Computer Vision.
Recommender - C library for product recommendations/suggestions using collaborative filtering (CF).
SHOGUN - The Shogun Machine Learning Toolbox.
sofia-ml - The suite of fast incremental algorithms for machine learning.

Mocking¶

googlemock - A library for writing and using C++ mock classes.

Multimedia¶

GStreamer - A library for constructing graphs of media-handling components.
libVLC - libVLC (VLC SDK) media framework.
SFML - Simple and Fast Multimedia Library.
SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer.

Networking¶

ACE - An OO Network Programming Toolkit in C++.
Boost.Asio - A cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming.
Casablanca - C++ REST SDK.
cpp-netlib - A collection of open-source libraries for high level network programming.
Muduo - A C++ non-blocking network library for multi-threaded server in Linux.
net_skeleton - TCP client/server library for C/C++.
Onion - HTTP server library in C designed to be lightweight and easy to use.
POCO - C++ class libraries and frameworks for building network- and internet-based applications that run on desktop, server, mobile and embedded systems.
Tufão - An asynchronous web framework for C++ built on top of Qt.
WebSocket++ - C++/Boost Asio based websocket client/server library.
ZeroMQ - High-speed, modular asynchronous communication library.

Physics¶

Dynamics simulation engines

Box2D - A 2D physics engine for games.
Bullet - A 3D physics engine for games.
LiquidFun - A 2D physics engine for games.
ofxBox2d - openFrameworks wrapper for Box2D.
Simbody - High-performance C++ multibody dynamics/physics library for simulating articulated biomechanical and mechanical systems like vehicles, robots, and the human skeleton.

Scripting¶

ChaiScript - An easy to use embedded scripting language for C++.
Lua - A minimal and fast scripting engine for configuration files and basic application scripting.
luacxx - C++11 API for creating Lua bindings.
SWIG - a wrapper/interface Generator that let you link your c++ code to Javascript, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and Ruby.
V7 - An embedded JavaScript engine.
V8 - A fast JavaScript engine by Google that can be embedded into any C++ application.

Serialization¶

Cap’n Proto - Fast data interchange format and capability-based RPC system.
cereal - A C++11 library for serialization.
FlatBuffers - A Memory efficient serialization library.
MessagePack - Efficient binary serialization format “like JSON” for C/C++. - website
protobuf - Protocol Buffers - Google’s data interchange format.

Web Application Framework¶

CppCMS - A Free High Performance Web Development Framework (not a CMS).
Crow - Crow is C++ micro web framework (inspired by Python Flask).
Wt - A C++ library for developing web applications.

XML¶

Expat - An XML parser library written in C.
Libxml2 - The XML C parser and toolkit of Gnome.
libxml++ - An XML Parser for C++.
PugiXML - A light-weight, simple and fast XML parser for C++ with XPath support.
RapidXml - An attempt to create the fastest XML parser possible, while retaining useability, portability and reasonable W3C compatibility.
TinyXML - A simple, small, minimal, C++ XML parser that can be easily integrating into other programs.
TinyXML2 - A simple, small, efficient, C++ XML parser that can be easily integrating into other programs.
TinyXML++ - A completely new interface to TinyXML that uses MANY of the C++ strengths. Templates, exceptions, and much better error handling.
Xerces-C++ - A validating XML parser written in a portable subset of C++.

Miscellaneous¶

Useful libraries or tools that don’t fit in the categories above or maybe just not categorised yet

C++ Format - Small, safe and fast formatting library for C++.
casacore - A set of c++ core libraries derived from aips++.
cxx-prettyprint - A pretty printing library for C++ containers.
DynaPDF - An easy-to-use PDF generation library.
Eigen - C++ template library for linear algebra: matrices, vectors, numerical solvers, and related algorithms.
HTTP Parser - A http request/response parser for C.
libcpuid - A small C library for x86 CPU detection and feature extraction.
libusb - A universal USB library which allows for portable access to USB devices.
Remote Call Framework - Inter-process communication framework for C++.
Serial Communication Library - Cross-platform, Serial Port library written in C++.
SDS - Simple Dynamic Strings library for C.
SLDR - Super Light DNS Resolver.
SLRE - Super Light Regular Expression library.
Stage - Mobile robot simulator.
ZBar - A barcode scanner library, which allows to scan photos/images/video streams for barcodes and return their value.
CppVerbalExpressions - C++ regular expressions made easy.
QtVerbalExpressions - This Qt lib is based off of the C++ VerbalExpressions library.

Software¶

Software for creating a development environment.

Compilers¶

List of C/C++ compilers

Clang - Developed by Apple.
GCC - GNU Compiler Collection.
Intel C++ Compiler - Developed by Intel.
Microsoft Visual C++ - MSVC, developed by Microsoft.
LLVM - Collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies.

Integrated Development Environments¶

List of C/C++ nominal IDEs.

Code::Blocks - A free C, C++ and Fortran IDE.
Dev-C++ - A portable C/C++/C++11 IDE.
Eclipse CDT - A fully functional C and C++ IDE based on the Eclipse platform.
KDevelop - A free, open source IDE.
Microsoft Visual Studio - An IDE from Microsoft.
NetBeans - An IDE for developing primarily with Java, but also with other languages, in particular PHP, C/C++, and HTML5.
Qt Creator - A cross-platform C++, JavaScript and QML IDE which is part of the SDK for Qt.
Xcode - Developed by Apple.
YouCompleteMe - YouCompleteMe is a fast, as-you-type, fuzzy-search code completion engine for Vim.

Resources¶

Various resources, such as books, websites, and articles for improving your C++ development skills and knowledge.

Articles¶

Fantastic C/C++ related articles.

C++Now 2014 Presentations - Presentation materials presented at C++Now 2014.
C++Now 2013 Presentations - Presentation materials presented at C++Now 2013.
C++Now 2012 Presentations - Presentation materials presented at C++Now 2012.

Books¶

Fantastic C/C++ related books.

The C++ Annotations - An in-depth guide on C++, intended for people with a good knowledge of C who want to make the transition to C++.
Free C Books - vhf/free-programming-books/C.
Free C++ Books - vhf/free-programming-books/C++.
The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List - A collection of quality books and an approximate skill level.

Videos¶

Fantastic C/C++ related videos.

Awesome C Programming Tutorials in Hi Def [HD] - A collection of detailed C Programming Language Tutorials for Beginners and New Programmers.
C++ - by VoidRealms.
C++ Qt Programming - by VoidRealms.
C++ Programming Tutorials Playlist - thenewboston Official Buckys C++ Programming Tutorials Playlist.
C++ Programming Tutorials from thenewboston - These are all of thenewboston’s C++ programming tutorials.
C++ GUI with Qt Playlist - Official Playlist for thenewboston C++ GUI with Qt tutorials.
C Programming Tutorials - All of thenewboston’s C programming tutorials are right here.

Websites¶

Useful C/C++ related websites.

C++ reference - C++98, C++03, C++11, C++14 reference.

Other Awesome Projects¶

Collection of useful codes, snippets, ...

algorithms - Algorithms & Data Structures in C++.
c-algorithms - C algorithms library.
C/C++ Awesome Pack - Contains some awesome c++ codes, packed in one.

Other Awesome Lists¶

Other amazingly awesome lists

lists - List of (awesome) lists curated on GitHub
awesome-awesomeness - A curated list of awesome awesomeness.
awesome - A curated list of awesome lists.
free-programming-books - List of Freely Available Programming Books
papers-we-love - Papers from the computer science community to read and discuss.
awesome-php - Awesome PHP libraries, resources and shiny things.
awesome-python - Awesome Python frameworks, libraries and software.
awesome-sysadmin - Awesome open source sysadmin resources
awesome-talks - A lot of screencasts, recordings of user group gatherings and conference talks.
github-cheat-sheet - A list of cool features of Git and GitHub.
ToolsOfTheTrade - Tools of The Trade, from Hacker News.
cheatsheets.org - The largest collection of reference cards for developers.
cheat-sheets.org - All cheat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides and quick reference sheets in one page.
thefreecountry.com - A collection of free programming resources, free webmasters’ resources, free security resources and free utilities.

Contributing¶

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.