How to write better game libraries

It does require some discipline, but C++ has many portable constructs that make life significantly easier when writing business logic.

When used correctly, C++ is not slower than C. Sometimes faster, a classic example is C qsort versus std::sort.

> If your library is written in C it means it can be used on any OS, console or mobile device and even on the web.

C++ is good in that regard. I know only 1 mainstream platform where C++ adds significant friction compared to C, that’s iOS, because their objective C is a superset of C. The rest of them (Windows, Linux including embedded, game consoles, android) support C++ just fine.

> Not everyone wants to use C++ (some prefer C).

Most people are OK with C++, especially in the context of game development.

> to the point where you are pretty much left with C

No, not with C. Namespaces and scoped enums are awesome.

Another thing, inside the implementation of the library, you can use whatever C++ language features you please, even the features that would be inappropriate when exposed at the API surface of the library. For example, MS implemented parts of their C runtime library with C++ classes, RAII, lambdas and templates, eliminating duplicated code for char/wchar_t routines. Obviously, you don’t need C++ to consume that library, just C is enough, but it’s implemented in modern C++. On my system, that source is in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Source\10.0.18362.0\ucrt\stdio\output.cpp".

I've never understood what's the practical difference between NS::foo() and NS_foo() with regards to preventing name collisions. Can someone enlighten me?

I know some disadvantages of the namespacing variant, though. There are now multiple names for the items defined in the namespace: the qualified one and the unqualified one. The latter is often not unique in practice, since the programmer relies on the qualified name for uniqueness. In effect, making simple text searches for identifiers is very unreliable. Note I do use IDEs, but I also code in vim, and I need to do simple text searches even when working in Visual Studio.

Additionally, there's no guarantee that there are no spaces around the scoper. I believe "NS :: foo" is just as valid, which makes me uneasy with regards to text search, as well.

Another issue I have:

    $ cat test.cpp 
    namespace NS { int foo() { return 0; } };
    $ g++ -c -o test.o test.cpp
    $ nm test.o
    0000000000000000 T _ZN2NS3fooEv  # I hate my life

I haven't found those working for me. Apart from the namespacing issue described above, I have issues with explicit enum types. One issue is that I often need to put sentinel / "missing" values (typically the value is -1) where an enum value is expected. Even more often, I want to iterate over the values of an enum. C++'s enum "type safety" makes working like this really unergonomic.

The way I go about this is I don't even use names for my enum types, and I fully qualify the enumeration values.

    enum {
        FPGAPARAM_BLA,
        FPGAPARAM_BLUB,
        FPGAPARAM_FOO,
        NUM_FPGAPARAM_KINDS
    };

    struct ASDF {
        int fpgaparamKind;   // obvious what kind of values are expected here...
    };

    for (int i = 0; i