C library naming conventions

Question

Introduction

Hello folks, I recently learned to program in C! (This was a huge step for me, since C++ was the first language, I had contact with and scared me off for

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there's no sure way to avoid name clashes in C. Since it lacks namespaces, you're left with prefixing the names of global functions and variables. Most libraries pick some short and "unique" prefix (unique is in quotes for obvious reasons), and hope that no clashes occur.

One thing to note is that most of the code of a library can be statically declared - meaning that it won't clash with similarly named functions in other files. But exported functions indeed have to be carefully prefixed.

Answer 2

It's a shame you got scared off by C++, as it has namespaces to deal with precisely this problem. In C, you are pretty much limited to using prefixes - you certainly can't "put api operations in a struct".

Edit: In response to your second question regarding allowing users to specify their own prefix, I would avoid it like the plague. 99.9% of users will be happy with whatever prefix you provide (assuming it isn't too silly) and will be very UNHAPPY at the hoops (macros, structs, whatever) they will have to jump through to satisfy the remaining 0.1%.