Big-Little Library

This library was originally part of "Bigoli", a universitary project aimed at the creation of a set of C++ functions for inter-process communication using TCP/IP protocol; the library was never finished (as far as I know), but since this module is useful on its own I decided to make it publicly available.

Type

C++ library; freeware/GNU General Public License 2.0.

Version

1.1 / english

Description

Library for information interchange between different operative systems and architectures (Big endian - Little endian); it can be used to exchange, in a transparent way, data files and configuration informations.

Requirements

• C++ compiler (Dos/Unix/Linux).

Features

BLlib is a C++ library that can be used to exchange alphanumeric and binary informations between machines that have different architectures, hence its name (Big-Little library).

Ms-Dos and Linux PC are little endian machines, while most Unix machines (HP, Digital..) are big endian; the difference between these two architectures is that they store integer numbers with most significant byte as the first or the last byte.

Of course, you could skip the problem by storing numbers as ASCII digits; but BLlib offers a more general and effective solution.

BLlib features a Message class with:

• methods for saving and loading messages;
• overloaded operators >> and <<, to insert and extract items from messages;
• methods to reposition message pointer, delete items, clear and copy message.

Support:

• automatic upgrade/degrade for integers (from 8 to 64 bits);
• automatic conversions float -> integer, integer-> float.

Download

Download BLlib (version 1.1 for Dos)

Download BLlib (version 1.1 for Unix)

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