CopperSpice

Introduction

CopperSpice is of a set of C++ libraries used to develop cross-platform software applications. This is an open source project released under the LGPL V2.1 license. CopperSpice was derived from the Qt framework. Our motivation for developing CopperSpice was to change the core design and leverage modern C++ functionality.

The libraies provided in CopperSpice include:

• CsCore
• CsGui
• CsMultimedia
• CsNetwork
• CsOpenGL
• CsPhonon
• CsScript
• CsSql
• CsSvg
• CsWebKit
• CsXml
• CsXmlPatterns

There are also three open source BSD licensed libraries which are used by CopperSpice and available as stand alone libraries for anyone developing a C++ application.

• CsSignal
• CsString
• libGuarded

Major enhancements

Reflection

• No Meta-Object Compiler is required for generating meta data, all references were removed
• The functionality provided by moc was replaced with compile time templates
• CopperSpice automatically generates meta data for processing Signals/ Slots and Introspection
• A template class can now inherit from QObject with no restrictions on types
• Complex data types such as QMap<QString, int> can be used without restriction

Enhanced Functionality

• CopperSpice makes extensive use of modern C++ features like variadic templates, constexpr, SFINAE, lambdas, atomics, tuple, etc
• Reimplemented container classes in CsCore using the C++ standard library containers, iterators, and algorithms
• CopperSpice includes several of the Qt 5 classes
• Integration of CsSignal
  • Improved thread aware Signal/Slot delivery
  • Increased efficiency while maintaining the full Signal/Slot API
• Integration of CsString
  • Improved storage of Unicode strings
  • QString8 (UTF-8) and QString16 (UTF-16)

Using the Libraries

• Any application using CopperSpice can be built with CMake, GNU Autotools, or any other build system
• CopperSpice can be linked directly into any standard C++ application

System Requirements

To use the CopperSpice libraries you will need a C++14 compiler and a C++14 standard library.

Uses CMake or Autotools for building binary files. Your project can be built with either CMake or Autotools. Refer to our CopperSpice Overview documentation, DoxyPress application, or our KitchenSink demo for sample build files.

Building

The CopperSpice libraries can be built using CMake or GNU Autotools.

Documentation

API

Full class documentation for CopperSpice is available on the CopperSpice website or downloaded from our forum.

www.copperspice.com/docs/cs_api/index.html

Overview and Building

The CopperSpice Overview documentation includes information on how to build the CopperSpice libraries, setting up a project which uses CopperSpice, how to migrate from Qt to CopperSpice, and other general information.

www.copperspice.com/docs/cs_overview/index.html

Presentations

Our YouTube channel videos are about modern C++, build systems, CopperSpice, DoxyPress, and other topics related to our open source work.

https://www.youtube.com/copperspice

Links to technical presentations recorded at CppNow and CppCon:

www.copperspice.com/presentations.html

Authors / Contributors

• Ansel Sermersheim
• Barbara Geller
• Robin Mills
• Ivailo Monev
• Adam Mensel
• Daniel Pfeifer
• Zbigniew Skowron
• Matan Nassaw
• Mortaro Marcello

License

This library is released under the LGPL V2.1 license. For more information refer to the LICENSE files provided with this project.

References

• Website: www.copperspice.com
• Email: info@copperspice.com