$ show nothings/stb
This repository is the well-known stb single-file public domain C/C++ library collection by Sean Barrett. It contains over 20 self-contained header-only libraries covering a wide range of functionality: image loading and writing (stb_image, stb_image_write), image resizing (stb_image_resize2), TrueType font parsing and rasterization with signed-distance fields (stb_truetype), Ogg Vorbis audio decoding (stb_vorbis), dynamic data structures (stb_ds), high-performance formatted output (stb_sprintf), rectangle packing (stb_rect_pack), text editing widget logic (stb_textedit), Perlin noise (stb_perlin), voxel rendering (stb_voxel_render), tilemap editing (stb_tilemap_editor), and many more. Each library is designed to be dropped into a project by including the header and defining an implementation macro in exactly one source file, requiring no external dependencies beyond standard C libraries. The repo also includes extensive test programs, fuzzing harnesses, and demo applications (e.g., a Minecraft-style voxel viewer, font oversampling demo). It is widely used in game development, tooling, and embedded systems due to its ease of integration and permissive licensing.
The LLM identified 4 files worth highlighting for reuse:
A single-file public-domain image loading library that decodes JPEG, PNG, BMP, TGA, GIF, HDR, PIC, and PNM formats. Provides functions like stbi_load() to return raw 8-bit-per-channel pixel data from file, memory, or custom I/O callbacks. Includes SIMD-accelerated IDCT and color conversion for x86 SSE2 and ARM NEON, a built-in zlib decoder for PNG, LZW for GIF, and Radiance RGBE for HDR. The API is trivially simple (load, info, free) and the implementation is highly robust against corrupted input, with overflow-checked allocation helpers. This component is the most widely used stb library and is extractable into any C/C++ project needing image loading without dependencies.
A comprehensive single-file library for parsing TrueType/OpenType font files and rasterizing glyphs into one-channel antialiased bitmaps or signed-distance fields (SDF). It supports basic glyph metrics, kerning, bitmap packing for texture atlases (optionally integrating with stb_rect_pack.h), and SDF generation with analytic distance computation. The implementation includes a full scanline rasterizer with non-zero winding fill, TrueType curve decomposition, CFF loading, and subpixel positioning. Despite its minimal footprint, it covers most production needs and is used in countless projects for font rendering without external dependencies.
A self-contained Ogg Vorbis audio decoder implementing the Vorbis I specification (except floor 0). It provides both pushdata (streaming) and pulldata (seekable) APIs, supporting memory and file input, and outputs 16-bit signed integer or float samples. The decoder includes a custom bitstream reader, Huffman decoder with acceleration tables, IMDCT, and floor/residue decoding. It is designed for lightweight integration into games and embedded systems, with optional custom memory allocators and compile-time feature toggles. The code demonstrates expert-level understanding of the Vorbis format and efficient C implementation.
A header-only library providing generic dynamic arrays and hash tables for C using macros. It implements arrays (push, pop, insert, delete, sort), ordered and unordered hash maps with string or integer keys, and string arenas. The hash table uses open addressing with bucket-based probing and SipHash for string keys. It avoids C++ templates and external dependencies, making it suitable for C projects that need flexible data structures. The macro API is designed to be type-safe with minimal syntax overhead, and the implementation includes performance instrumentation options. This component is a prime example of reusable utility code that can be extracted and used in any C project.