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Adding libraries like Abseil, Folly, or Boost is kind of a huge pain in the ass. They’re monstrously huge libraries with a kajillion headers.

I recently tried to compile Folly on Windows and gave up. Maybe Abseil is better? I’m not sure. But it’s still a HUGE dependency to take on.

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Use conan or vcpkg.

Dependencies giving you trouble? Try adding a dependency to handle them!

Adding one dependency to your toolchain which in turn helps you with dealing with an open-ended set of 3rd party dependencies is a good deal.

No.

conan and vcpkg come with their own can of worms and heartaches.

FWIW, I’ve been working on a project that has transitioned from a standard-ish CMake super build to vcpkg and it has been a fantastic upgrade in terms of usability and reliability.

There are huge swaths of the C++ lands map I’ve not visited, so I’m sure there are areas where it wouldn’t be a good choice, but I personally think vcpkg has been great.

vcpkg is well-designed and doesn't get in the way like conan does.

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