POCO C++ Libraries

POCO C++ Libraries
Developer(s)	Günter Obiltschnig, et al.
Initial release	February 21, 2005; 19 years ago
Stable release	1.13.3 / 2024-04-06[±]
Repository	POCO Repository
Written in	C++
Operating system	Cross-platform:; Desktop-server: Windows, Linux, macOS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX; Embedded-mobile: Windows Embedded Compact, embedded Linux, Android, iOS, QNX, VxWorks
Platform	ARM, IA-32, x86-64
Available in	English
Type	library or framework
License	Boost Software 1.0
Website	pocoproject.org

The POrtable COmponents (POCO) C++ Libraries are computer software, a set of class libraries for developing computer network-centric, portable applications in the programming language C++. The libraries cover functions such as threads, thread synchronizing, file system access, streams, shared libraries and class loading, Internet sockets, and network communications protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc.), and include an HTTP server, and an XML parser with SAX2 and DOM interfaces and SQL database access. The modular and efficient design and implementation makes the libraries well suited for embedded system development.

The libraries are free and open-source software distributed under the Boost Software License 1.0.

Overview

POCO is a set of C++ libraries providing users with library support similar to that found in other development environments, like the Java Class Library, .NET Framework, or Apple's Cocoa. POCO is centered on network-centric application domains and developed with modern ANSI/ISO Standard C++ and C++ Standard Library facilities and techniques with emphasis on powerful functionality, ease of use, and consistency. Governed primarily by code quality, consistent style and unit testing, POCO is highly portable, and already ported to a variety of different platforms.

History

Library hierarchy

As of 2017^[update], POCO C++ Libraries are split into five core libraries with optional add-on libraries available with each release. The design and hierarchy of POCO C++ is considered well designed.^[3]^[4] The five core component libraries cover the following areas that can be found in the basic edition:

Foundation

Platform abstraction – Eases porting issues of fundamental types, etc.
Memory management – Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII), auto_ptr, reference counting garbage collection, etc.
String utilities
Error handling – Extended exception classes
streams – Encoding and decoding and filtering support
threads – Concurrent processing support
Date and time – Date and time support including formatting and high precision timers
File system – Abstracted file system support
Logging – Application and system logging, filtering and logging strategies
Processes – Interprocess communication and memory sharing
shared libraries – Dynamic library support
Notifications – Abstracted notification support
Events – Abstracted event support and strategies
Crypt – Random number generation, Digests and encoding/decoding engines
Text – Unicode encoding support
Regular expressions – Based on Perl compatible regular expression
URI – Universal Resource Identifier support
UUID – Universally Unique Identifiers support and generators
Cache support – Abstracted strategy support

Net

sockets – Abstracted low level network support
Reactor pattern – Popular network abstraction pattern support
MIME messages – Encoding support
HTTP – High level HTTP support for client and servers
FTP – High level FTP support
Mail – POP3, SMTP stream based support
HTML – Form support

XML

JSON

APIs for reading and writing JSON

Util

Configuration files
Command line options
Tools and server application framework

One design goal of many targeted decisions are based around POCO C++ providing an easy to use component library that works out of the box. As of 2017^[update], the libraries are available in two package formats: the basic and the complete editions. The complete edition covers NetSSL, Crypto, Zip, and Data abilities, among others. The basic edition does not, and thus eliminates dependence on external facilities such as OpenSSL, ODBC, and MySQL dependencies.

Being open source enables and encourages development of further library functions. Design and development of existing and upcoming library support is driven by the pragmatic needs of the user base. Library additions occur in a sandbox development environment and are reviewed and integrated into the main library releases as approved by the core development team with input from contributors.

Release history

2004 – Günter Obiltschnig began POCO by developing the class libraries because of being dissatisfied by what was available in C++ class libraries for network centric programming.
February 21, 2005 – The first public release on SourceForge, under the Sleepycat License, contained the Foundation and XML support libraries.
May 2005 – Aleksandar Fabijanic made the first contribution.
January 19, 2006 – POCO 1.0 was released, including the Net library.
July 2006 – POCO was relicensed under the Boost license.
May 2007 – POCO 1.3 was released, including the Data library
December 2010 – POCO 1.4 was released, including many improvements.
December 2014 – POCO 1.6 was released, including the JSON and MongoDB libraries and many other improvements.
March 2016 – POCO 1.7 was released, including many improvements.
March 2018 - POCO 1.9 was released, including support for internationalized Domain Names and additions to supported text encodings.

Users

Users include:^[5]

Appcelerator Titanium
Schneider Electric Buildings (formerly TAC)
CACE Technologies
Mantid
Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit
OpenFrameworks
GLUEscript
SeguriData
Aysso Systems
Tonido
Gladinet
US Army's Communications Realism Appliance (CRA)

References

^ February 21, 2005: The first public release on SourceForge, under the Sleepycat License, contained the Foundation and XML support libraries.
^ "Releases - pocoproject/poco". Retrieved 2024-07-10.
^ "Why POCO is well implemented and designed?". 24 September 2009.
^ Merkle, Bernhard. Stop the Software Architecture Erosion (PDF). ACCU 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
^ "View topic - List of known POCO C++ Libraries Users | POCO C++ Libraries Forum". Archived from the original on 2013-08-26. Retrieved 2011-02-01.

External links

[1] February 21, 2005: The first public release on SourceForge, under the Sleepycat License, contained the Foundation and XML support libraries.

[POCO_C++_Libraries_release-2] "Releases - pocoproject/poco". Retrieved 2024-07-10.

[3] "Why POCO is well implemented and designed?". 24 September 2009.

[4] Merkle, Bernhard. Stop the Software Architecture Erosion (PDF). ACCU 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2024.

[5] "View topic - List of known POCO C++ Libraries Users | POCO C++ Libraries Forum". Archived from the original on 2013-08-26. Retrieved 2011-02-01.

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