C++ library with a Java-like API

Question

Hello.

Hoping that anybody here knows about a good one: I'm looking for a (free to use) C++ library with a class hierarchy and methods resembling the Java API, with at least the I/O & networking part if it, specifically HTTP handling.

I work mainly with C & Java, but for this particular project C++ is recommended, so I thought of adopting a good set of C++ libraries without facing a steep learning curve.

Thanks in advance for any recommendation.

Answer 1

Have you looked at the Boost libraries?

• Boost.IOStreams provides a framework for defining streams, stream buffers and i/o filters.
• Asio - Portable networking, including sockets, timers, hostname resolution and socket iostreams.
• Many others....

The Boost libraries provide similar capabilities as compared to the Java API, but they very much 'look and feel' - appropriately - like a C++ library.

Answer 2

A C++ library that looked like a Java one would be a bad library, IMHO. The two languages are so very different that what is good design for one will almost inevitably be bad design for the other.

Answer 3

Qt is IMHO very java like. I.e. they prefer Java-Style Iterators over the STL ones. Qt includes networking (examples) and much other stuff (like scripting via javascript)

Answer 4

There is also the option of using something like POCO, which is slightly simpler than using something like Boost, while still being cross platform.

While the only time I used HTTP in Java was a long time ago, the interface for the POCO library looks fairly simple to use. It gives a example of basic FTP usage a something like this:

Poco::Net::FTPStreamFactory::registerFactory();
std::ofstream localFile(inputFile, std::ios_base::out | std::ios_base::binary);
Poco::URI uri(inputURL);
std::auto_ptr<std::istream> ptrFtpStream(Poco::Net::URIStreamOpener::defaultOpener().open(uri));
Poco::StreamCopier::copyStream(*ptrFtpStream.get(), localFile);