Core

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Introduction

Core is a C-like C++20 library providing foundational utilities for data-oriented programming. It is designed as a replacement for the STL with a simpler, more explicit design:

• Explicit allocations — every container accepts an Allocator *, making every allocation visible and swappable (heap, arena, pool, temp).
• No exceptions — errors are returned as Error values.
• Explicit lifetimes — _init / _deinit pairs make every allocation and ownership transfer visible at the call site.
• C-like style — free functions over methods, plain structs over class hierarchies.

This library is still a WIP — breaking changes are expected.

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Modules

Module	Description
core/memory/	Allocator interface, heap, arena, pool, and temp allocators
core/containers/array.h	Dynamic array (Array<T>)
core/containers/stack_array.h	Fixed-capacity stack array (Stack_Array<T, N>)
core/containers/span.h	Non-owning view (Span<T>)
core/containers/string.h	Heap-allocated string (String)
core/containers/hash_table.h	Open-addressing hash table (Hash_Table<K, V>)
core/containers/hash_set.h	Hash set (Hash_Set<K>)
core/containers/string_interner.h	String deduplication (String_Interner)
core/formatter.h	Type-safe string formatting (format())
core/print.h / core/log.h	Colored output and log levels
core/defer.h	Scope-exit macro (DEFER)
core/validate.h	Runtime assertions with source location
core/result.h	Error-returning pattern (Error, Result<T>)
core/hash.h	FNV-32 and type-generic hash()
core/reflect.h	Compile-time type reflection
core/serialization/	Binary and JSON serializers
core/ecs.h	Minimal entity-component system
core/platform/platform.h	File I/O, path utilities, native dialogs

📖 Full documentation is in the docs/ folder.

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Quick Example

#include <core/containers/array.h>
#include <core/defer.h>
#include <core/log.h>

struct Vertex
{
    float x, y, z;
    float nx, ny, nz;
};

auto vertices = array_init<Vertex>();
DEFER(array_deinit(vertices));

array_push(vertices, Vertex{1.0f, 2.0f, 3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f});
array_push(vertices, Vertex{4.0f, 5.0f, 6.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f});

log_info("loaded {} vertices", vertices.count);

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Platforms

Platform	Status
Windows	✅
Linux	✅
macOS	✅

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Prerequisites

Windows

• CMake 3.20+

Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install -y cmake libx11-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libx11-xcb-dev zenity

macOS

• Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install
• CMake 3.20+

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Building

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Debug -j

Output is placed in build/bin/Debug/.

Options

CMake Option	Default	Description
CORE_BUILD_UNITTEST	ON (main project)	Build unit tests
CORE_INSTALL	ON (main project)	Enable install target
CORE_BUILD_UNITY	OFF	Enable unity (single-TU) build
CORE_BUILD_STATIC	OFF	Build as a static library

Running Tests

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Debug
./build/bin/Debug/unittest