C libraries have advertised "header-only" for a long time, it's because there is no package manager/dependency management so you're literally copying all your dependencies into your project.
replyThis is also why everyone implements their own (buggy) linked-list implementations, etc.
And header-only is more efficient to include and build with than header+source.
I never copied my dependencies into my C project, nor does it usually take more than a couple of seconds to add one.
replyThere's a number of extremely shitty vendor toolchain/IDE combos out there that make adding and managing dependencies unnecessarily painful. Things like only allowing one project to be open at a time, or compiler flags needing to be manually copied to each target.
replyNow that I'm thinking about it, CMake also isn't particularly good at this the way most people use it.
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replyExactly; I can't understand this obsession with header-only C "libraries".
replyWriting new C code in 2026 is already an artisanal statement, so why not got all the way in making it?
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