Introduction

What is a codec?

From Wikipedia:

A codec is a [...] computer program for encoding or decoding a digital data stream [...].

Codec is a portmanteau of coder-decoder.

Some famous codecs are: base64, FLAC, zip.

Why should I use mgs?

mgs defines a common interface for all supported codecs, that is both generic and customizable.

#include <mgs/base64.hpp>

#include <array>
#include <forward_list>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

using namespace mgs;

int main() {
  std::string const a = base64::encode("Hello, World!");
  std::vector<unsigned char> const b = base64::decode(a);

  // Default return types can be overriden
  auto const c = base64::encode<std::forward_list<char>>(b);
  auto const d = base64::decode<std::array<char, 13>>(c);

  // Iterator ranges are supported
  auto const e = base64::encode(d.begin(), d.end());
  auto const f = base64::decode(e.begin(), e.end());
}

This should cover most people’s needs. More advanced use-cases are discussed in later sections.

Scope

The goal of this library is to be a collection of codecs.

Here is the list of currently supported codecs:

• base64

• base64url

• base32

• base32hex

• base16

Requirements

mgs is header-only, and only requires a C++14 compiler.

Documentation-wise, basic knowledge of concepts is recommended.

Although they are not yet available and thus not used in the code, the documentation relies on them. Consider taking a look here to have a quick introduction.

Credits

This library is heavily inspired from cppcodec.

I first wanted to contribute to cppcodec by lifting some API constraints (i.e. being able to decode std::array).

However, it was harder than it seemed so I started a side-project from scratch to experiment on API genericity and user-defined type conversions.

It ended up as a complete rewrite…