Large libraries versus small ones

Posted Sep 19, 2025 11:17 UTC (Fri) by smurf (subscriber, #17840)
In reply to: Large libraries versus small ones by farnz
Parent article: Comparing Rust to Carbon

> Qt is a great example here; it's split into many smaller pieces that are independent

For some value of "independent", anyway.

While you can just grab the pieces you want (within limits), *updating* just the pieces that need new fun[ctions] and leaving the rest to their 10-year-old splendor ('cause that's when you vetted them, and if it ain't broken …) is not going to cut it. (Consider libboost as an extreme example of this.)

Of course, dependency heck isn't limited to Qt or Boost … but truly independent libraries tend to be more explicit about which versions of their dependencies they require than a more-or-less-explicit "get me whichever version of libfoo that was current as of 2025-09".