Experience converting a large mathematical software package written in C++ to C++20 modules
Fuente:
arXiv
Salvato in:
| Autore principale: | |
|---|---|
| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2025
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | |
| Tags: |
Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
|
| _version_ | 1866911650729164800 |
|---|---|
| author | Bangerth, Wolfgang |
| author_facet | Bangerth, Wolfgang |
| contents | Mathematical software has traditionally been built in the form of "packages" that build on each other. A substantial fraction of these packages is written in C++ and, as a consequence, the interface of a package is described in the form of header files that downstream packages and applications can then #include. C++ has inherited this approach towards exporting interfaces from C, but the approach is clunky, unreliable, and slow. As a consequence, C++20 has introduced a "module" system in which packages explicitly export declarations and code that compilers then store in machine-readable form and that downstream users can "import" -- a system in line with what many other programming languages have used for decades.
Herein, I explore how one can convert large mathematical software packages written in C++ to this system, using the deal.II finite element library with its around 800,000 lines of code as an example. I describe an approach that allows providing both header-based and module-based interfaces from the same code base, discuss the challenges one encounters, and how modules actually work in practice in a variety of technical and human metrics. The results show that with a non-trivial, but also not prohibitive effort, the conversion to modules is possible, resulting in a reduction in compile time for the converted library itself; on the other hand, for downstream projects, compile times show no clear trend. I end with thoughts about long-term strategies for converting the entire ecosystem of mathematical software over the coming years or decades. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_21654 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Experience converting a large mathematical software package written in C++ to C++20 modules Bangerth, Wolfgang Software Engineering Mathematical Software Mathematical software has traditionally been built in the form of "packages" that build on each other. A substantial fraction of these packages is written in C++ and, as a consequence, the interface of a package is described in the form of header files that downstream packages and applications can then #include. C++ has inherited this approach towards exporting interfaces from C, but the approach is clunky, unreliable, and slow. As a consequence, C++20 has introduced a "module" system in which packages explicitly export declarations and code that compilers then store in machine-readable form and that downstream users can "import" -- a system in line with what many other programming languages have used for decades. Herein, I explore how one can convert large mathematical software packages written in C++ to this system, using the deal.II finite element library with its around 800,000 lines of code as an example. I describe an approach that allows providing both header-based and module-based interfaces from the same code base, discuss the challenges one encounters, and how modules actually work in practice in a variety of technical and human metrics. The results show that with a non-trivial, but also not prohibitive effort, the conversion to modules is possible, resulting in a reduction in compile time for the converted library itself; on the other hand, for downstream projects, compile times show no clear trend. I end with thoughts about long-term strategies for converting the entire ecosystem of mathematical software over the coming years or decades. |
| title | Experience converting a large mathematical software package written in C++ to C++20 modules |
| topic | Software Engineering Mathematical Software |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21654 |