From cc4cee596eb3049652ca4cc781603a6f37c3d3f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Victor Zverovich Date: Sun, 31 May 2026 10:38:48 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Update README.md --- README.md | 79 +++---------------------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 75 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index c5ec813f..ce4176d9 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -380,82 +380,11 @@ If you are aware of other projects using this library, please let me know by [email](mailto:victor.zverovich@gmail.com) or by submitting an [issue](https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt/issues). -# Motivation +# Sponsors -So why yet another formatting library? - -There are plenty of methods for doing this task, from standard ones like -the printf family of function and iostreams to Boost Format and -FastFormat libraries. The reason for creating a new library is that -every existing solution that I found either had serious issues or -didn\'t provide all the features I needed. - -## printf - -The good thing about `printf` is that it is pretty fast and readily -available being a part of the C standard library. The main drawback is -that it doesn\'t support user-defined types. `printf` also has safety -issues although they are somewhat mitigated with [\_\_attribute\_\_ -((format (printf, -\...))](https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Common-Attributes.html) in -GCC. There is a POSIX extension that adds positional arguments required -for -[i18n](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization) -to `printf` but it is not a part of C99 and may not be available on some -platforms. - -## iostreams - -The main issue with iostreams is best illustrated with an example: - -``` c++ -std::cout << std::setprecision(2) << std::fixed << 1.23456 << "\n"; -``` - -which is a lot of typing compared to printf: - -``` c++ -printf("%.2f\n", 1.23456); -``` - -Matthew Wilson, the author of FastFormat, called this \"chevron hell\". -iostreams don\'t support positional arguments by design. - -The good part is that iostreams support user-defined types and are safe -although error handling is awkward. - -## Boost Format - -This is a very powerful library that supports both `printf`-like format -strings and positional arguments. Its main drawback is performance. -According to various benchmarks, it is much slower than other methods -considered here. Boost Format also has excessive build times and severe -code bloat issues (see [Benchmarks](#benchmarks)). - -## FastFormat - -This is an interesting library that is fast, safe and has positional -arguments. However, it has significant limitations, citing its author: - -> Three features that have no hope of being accommodated within the -> current design are: -> -> - Leading zeros (or any other non-space padding) -> - Octal/hexadecimal encoding -> - Runtime width/alignment specification - -It is also quite big and has a heavy dependency, on STLSoft, which might be -too restrictive for use in some projects. - -## Boost Spirit.Karma - -This is not a formatting library but I decided to include it here for -completeness. As iostreams, it suffers from the problem of mixing -verbatim text with arguments. The library is pretty fast, but slower on -integer formatting than `fmt::format_to` with format string compilation -on Karma\'s own benchmark, see [Converting a hundred million integers to -strings per -second](http://www.zverovich.net/2020/06/13/fast-int-to-string-revisited.html). +{fmt} development is supported by individual sponsors. If you find this +library useful, please consider [sponsoring its development on GitHub +Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/vitaut). # License