C++ Libraries

The demand to libraries is that they can compete with ImageJ in both features and simplicity. More specific they need to be:

  • Cross platform
  • Close to ImageJ in functionality
  • Simple to program
  • Do not require too much duck tape to work together
  • Do not have a steep learning curve
  • Do not have a complex build process

This page will will give a short description of the libraries and some possible future development.

Current libraries choice

Boost

Boost is a collection of open source C++ libraries, a place where new features of C++ is implemented and tried before becoming part of the C++ standard.

This makes use of some very advanced and new programming techniques e.g.

  • Template meta programming
  • Lambda functions
  • Concepts
  • Traits

It contains a lot of functional programming features that should be helpful for the lazy stream library.

Problems with Boost
  • Boost is a good stress test for your compiler. Some classes in boost would crash GCC 3.1 and 3.2.
  • You would not catch all errors at compile time for template code. Concepts is a new way to alleviate this problem.
  • Template code has been hard to debug.

GIL, Generic Image Library

Generic Image Library was developed by Adobe but a part of Boost since 1.35. This uses template programming and is written so that you can write an algorithm once and have it be implemented efficiently for many different image types. This is something that you cannot do in ImageJ. The price is that it is programmed with advanced templates.

GIL makes wrappers around other images classes. This works fine with both FLTK images class: Fl_Image and OpenCV images: IplImage.

OpenCV, Open Computer Vision

OpenCV is written by Intel. It is simple to use and comes with a lot of algorithms.

Images are read, written and internally stored as OpenCV images: IplImage. One issue is that this is using BGR byte order opposed to RGB as Fl_Image. After reading and before writing the R and B colors are swapped.

FLTK Fast Light Toolkit

FLTK is light to work with. This is built on top of Windows API or X11. This is currently used as the GUI framework in ShapeLogic C++.

Google C++ Testing Framework

Google C++ Testing Framework is a framework for writing C++ unit tests. Based on the xUnit architecture. It has a strong focus on simplicity and terse code.

Boost Build / Bjam

Cross platform Make replacement.

Libraries that might be integrated in the future

OpenFrameworks

OpenFrameworks is a C++ based image processing tool for artists, close to Processing that is written in Java. This is built on top of OpenCV.

Seems to be in a very early stage but people are using it.

Possible integrations of ShapeLogic C++ as plugin

  • Adobe PhotoShop plugin for a full featured workbench with macro languages
  • GIMP plugin for a full featured workbench with macro languages

PhotoShop plugin

Adobe Photoshop would be a full fledged workbench.

PhotoShop is not open source but there should not be any problem when using it as a platform. Since PhotoShop is the standard image manipulation tool, this could be a good way to make ShapeLogic algorithms available to a wider audience.

Issues

The PhotoShop API is not freely available, you have to apply to get it.

GIMP plugin

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source drawing program that works with external plugins.

This would be a full fledged workbench.

Issues

ShapeLogic cannot be linked to GIMP since it is GPL, but you could have a wrapper around plugins in order to access them as GIMP plugins.

The plugin works with tiles, which gives good performance, but does not fit well with either the way OpenCV or GIL are processing images.

Possible alternatives to FLTK for rudimentary workbench

FLTK seems to be the simples cross platform GUI toolkit with an appropriate license, but it is a very sparse library. If at some point a more full featured library is needed here are some alternatives.

  • ASL, Adobe Source Library
  • GTK+ GIMP toolkit
  • GTKMM C++ wrapper around GTK+
  • HighGui from OpenCV
  • wxWidget

ASL, Adobe Source Library

Framework for declarative definition of GUI.

Issues

Currently only works on Windows and Mac.

It is a relatively big frameworks, where ShapeLogic is trying to be a simple as possible.

GTK, GIMP toolkit

GTK is a full featured GUI toolkit working on most platforms.

Issues

It is written in C and has a homegrown object system, which is not type safe.

GTKMM, GIMP toolkit with C++ wrapper

GTKMM is a C++ wrapper around GTK. Programming in GTKMM is a lot more natural to C++ programmers.

Issues

The class hierarchy is somewhat deep since it is build on top of GTK. It seems a little heavier than FLTK.

HighGui from OpenCV

Very lightweight. There is some functionality for displaying images and an event handler for mouse events.

Issues

It does not seem to have a menu system, which is essential for a rudimentary workbench.

wxWidget

wxWidgets is a full featured GUI toolkit, built on top of native toolkits: Win32, Mac OS X, GTK+, X11, Motif, WinCE and more. The programming style is close to Windows MFC programming.

Issues

It seems a little heavier than FLTK.