For some of these libraries, they aren’t useful without the code generator. On top of that, the interface that some of these libraries expose still count as “internals”, because the “real” interface is the generated code.

For QT, Microsoft RPC, and Apache Thrift, you can download prebuilt binaries, as well as the prebuilt code generator. Using the library (often) requires using code generated from the code generator.

From: Daniel Ruoso <daniel_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 2:24 PM
To: Ben Craig <ben.craig_at_[hidden]>
Cc: sg15_at_lists.isocpp.org
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [SG15] RFC: Requirements to consume a prebuilt library from arbitrary build systems

On Wed, Oct 27, 2021, 12:06 Ben Craig <ben.craig_at_[hidden]<mailto:ben.craig_at_[hidden]>> wrote:
How do I invoke your code generator (like with gRPC, Apache Thrift, Microsoft RPC, QT)? How do I deal with dependencies with your code generator?

That's an interesting borderline topic.

There's a line to be drawn between consuming libraries and describing how tools are used.

I'd be interested to learn more about the scenario where this comes in the context of a prebuilt library dependency.