Show HN: Easy alternative to giflib – header-only decoder in C(github.com)
24 pointsby FerkiHN2 days ago2 comments
  • anitil2 days ago
    Very nice project, interesting that there's a couple header-only projects on the front page today [0].

    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44556318

    • FerkiHN2 days ago
      Thanks! Yeah, seems like it's header-only Thursday I love the stb-style “drop-in and go” approach — it keeps things clean and easy to adopt, especially for low-level or embedded projects.
  • FerkiHN2 days ago
    I made this to replace giflib for embedded and low-resource use cases. It's:

    header-only (drop-in),

    zero-allocation (you provide the buffer),

    faster LZW decoding (turbo mode),

    compatible with C89 environments, etc.

    Happy to get feedback or suggestions!

    • eqvinox2 days ago
      Listing code size numbers for arm-none-eabi-gnu might be good advertisement (compile/"size" output of a file using all the functions is enough, no need to figure out some target to link or have a main() for)
      • FerkiHN2 days ago
        Good point — thanks! I’ll add a compiled code size example using `arm-none-eabi-gcc` and `size` to the README.

        P.S. When I said size, I meant that it is very light and if you use it in a project, the binary itself will be smaller, and I used the ARM to test it.

    • ranger_danger2 days ago
      > compatible with C89 environments

      What do you mean by this? Because the code I'm looking at does not appear to be C89.

      • FerkiHN2 days ago
        You're right to question that — thanks for catching it. I aimed for C89-style compatibility (e.g., no `stdint.h`, minimal features), but I may have overlooked some modern extensions.
        • lelanthrana day ago
          > You're right to question that — thanks for catching it.

          I see this phrase, complete with em-dash, dozens of times a day, every day.

          Everyone does, I guess.

          • FerkiHNa day ago
            Haha fair point Guilty as charged — I guess I went full "HN polite mode" there. But yeah, seriously appreciate the feedback — makes the project stronger.
          • majorchorda day ago
            I've seen some claim that it may imply the usage of LLMs.