Not Invented Here
by Curtis Krauskopf

I hate reinventing the wheel. The most common wheels I reinvent are utility type functions, such as trimming whitespace from strings and directory manipulation functions.

Using open-source libraries is one way to not reinvent the wheel. But many open source libraries are created with little or no regard to C++ Builder compatibility. When I try a new open-source library, I often find that there is "some assembly required" in picking through the make files, the documentation and even the source code to create a Borland library project file.

"Not Invented Here" is a column I write in C++ Builder Developer's Journal. Periodically, the column will review an open-source library. Installation instructions and changes the user needs to make to the library's distribution to accommodate Borland C++ Builder are provided.

Open-Source C++ Reviews at The Database Managers:

STLplus
STLplus is an eclectic collection of STL C++ components. The areas covered in STLplus range from the mundane (trimming strings) to advanced (directed graphs, hash tables and file management).

OPT 3.19 is a command line parsing library for C++ and C programs. It provides an automatically generated user interface, an automatically generated help screen and it can read parameters from files and environment variables and create files using the current set of parameters.

JavaLib
JavaLib is a small library of Java-like classes written in C++. The size of the library promotes portability and maintainability by end-users. For the right project, JavaLib can be quite helpful in providing containers that are much simpler to use than the STL but provide all of the power of template programming.

STLplus 3.4
The original STLplus 2.5 library has been updated by Andy Rushton, the creator and maintainer of the STLplus library. The new library is reviewed and some updates are provided for the user.