cgal/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Third_party.txt

/*!

\page thirdparty Compilers and Third Party Dependencies
\cgalAutoToc

\section seccompilers Supported Compilers

In order to build a program using \cgal, you need a \cpp compiler
supporting <a href="https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/cpp14">C++14</a> or later.
\cgal \cgalReleaseNumber is supported (continuously tested) for the following compilers/operating systems:

| Operating System | Compiler |
| :----------      | :--------------- |
| Linux            | \gnu `g++` 10.2.1 or later\cgalFootnote{<A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/">\cgalFootnoteCode{http://gcc.gnu.org/}</A>} |
|                  | `Clang` \cgalFootnote{<A HREF="http://clang.llvm.org/">\cgalFootnoteCode{http://clang.llvm.org/}</A>} compiler version 13.0.0 |
| \ms Windows      | \gnu `g++` 10.2.1 or later\cgalFootnote{<A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/">\cgalFootnoteCode{http://gcc.gnu.org/}</A>} |
|                  | \ms Visual `C++` 14.0, 15.9, 16.10, 17.0 (\visualstudio 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022)\cgalFootnote{<A HREF="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/">\cgalFootnoteCode{https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/}</A>} |
| MacOS X          | \gnu `g++` 10.2.1 or later\cgalFootnote{<A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/">\cgalFootnoteCode{http://gcc.gnu.org/}</A>} |
|                  | Apple `Clang` compiler versions 10.0.1, 12.0.5, and 13.0.0 |

<!-- Windows supported version are also listed on windows.html (must change both) -->

Older versions of the above listed compilers might work, but no guarantee is provided.

\section seccmake CMake
<b>Version 3.14 or later</b>

In order to configure and build the \cgal examples, demos, or libraries,
you need <a href="https://cmake.org/">CMake</a>, a cross-platform "makefile generator".

This manual explains only the features of CMake which are needed in order to use \cgal.
Please refer to the <a href="https://cmake.org/documentation/">CMake documentation</a>
for further details.

\attention Recent versions of CMake are needed for the most recent versions of MS Visual C++.
Please refer to CMake's documentation for further information, for example
<a href="https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/generator/Visual%20Studio%2016%202019.html">here</a>
for Visual Studio 16 2019.

\section secessential3rdpartysoftware Essential Third Party Libraries

The focus of \cgal is on geometry, and we rely on other
highly specialized libraries and software for non-geometric issues,
for instance for numeric solvers or visualization. We first list software
that is essential to most of \cgal, and must therefore be found during the configuration of \cgal.
The page \ref configurationvariables lists CMake and environment variables which can be used to specify
the location of third-party software during configuration.

\subsection thirdpartystl Standard Template Library (STL)

\cgal heavily uses the \stl, and in particular adopted many of its design ideas. You can find online
documentation for the \stl at various web sites, for instance,
<A HREF="https://en.cppreference.com/w/">`https://en.cppreference.com `</A>,
or <A HREF="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1fe2x6kt(v=vs.140).aspx">`https://msdn.microsoft.com`</A>.

The \stl comes with the compiler, and as such no installation is required.

\subsection thirdpartyBoost Boost
<b>Version 1.66 or later</b>

The \boost libraries are a set of portable C++ source libraries.
Most of \boost libraries are header-only, but a few of them need to be compiled or
installed as binaries.

\cgal only requires the headers of the \boost libraries, but some demos and examples
depend on the binary library `Boost.Program_options`.

In case the \boost libraries are not installed on your system already, you
can obtain them from <A HREF="https://www.boost.org">`https://www.boost.org/`</A>.
For Visual C++ you can download precompiled libraries
from <A HREF="https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries/">`https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries/`</A>.

As there is no canonical directory for where to find \boost on Windows,
we recommend that you define the environment variable
`BOOST_ROOT` and set it to where you have installed \boost, e.g., `C:\boost\boost_1_69_0`.

\subsection thirdpartyMPFR GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic (GMP) and GNU Multiple Precision Floating-Point Reliably (MPFR) Libraries
<b>GMP Version 4.2 or later, MPFR Version 2.2.1 or later</b>

The components `libCGAL`, `libCGAL_Core`, and `libCGAL_Qt5` require
\gmp and \mpfr which are libraries for multi precision integers and rational numbers,
and for multi precision floating point numbers.

\cgal combines floating point arithmetic with exact arithmetic
in order to be efficient and reliable. \cgal has a built-in
number type for that, but \gmp and \mpfr provide a faster
solution, and we recommend using them.

These libraries can be obtained from <A HREF="https://gmplib.org/">`https://gmplib.org/`</A>
and <A HREF="https://www.mpfr.org/">`https://www.mpfr.org/`</A>.
Since Visual \cpp is not properly supported by the \gmp and \mpfr projects,
we provide precompiled versions of \gmp and \mpfr, which can be downloaded
from the <a href="https://github.com/CGAL/cgal/releases">assets of a release</a>.

\section secoptional3rdpartysoftware Optional Third Party Libraries

Optional 3rd party software can be used by \cgal for various reasons:
certain optional libraries might be required to build examples and
demos shipped with \cgal or to build your own project using \cgal;
another reason is to speed up basic tasks where specialized libraries can be faster than the default
version shipped with \cgal.
The page \ref configurationvariables lists CMake and environment variables which can be used to specify
the location of third-party software during configuration.

\subsection thirdpartyQt Qt5
<b>Version 5.9.0 or later</b>

Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework.

The component libCGAL_Qt5 is essential to run the \cgal demos and basic viewers.
It requires \qt5 installed on your system.
In case \qt is not yet installed on your system, you can download
it from <A HREF="https://www.qt-project.org/">`https://www.qt-project.org/`</A>.

The exhaustive list of \qt5 components used in demos is:
`Core`, `Gui`, `Help`, `OpenGL`, `Script`, `ScriptTools`, `Svg`, `Widgets`,
`qcollectiongenerator` (with `sqlite` driver plugin), and `Xml`.

\subsection thirdpartyEigen Eigen
<b>Version 3.1 or later</b>

\eigen is a `C++` template library for linear algebra. \eigen supports all
matrix sizes, various matrix decomposition methods and sparse linear solvers.

In \cgal, \eigen is used in many packages such as \ref
PkgPoissonSurfaceReconstruction3 or \ref PkgJetFitting3, providing
sparse linear solvers and singular value decompositions.  A package
dependency over \eigen is marked on the <a
href="https://doc.cgal.org/latest/Manual/packages.html">Package
Overview</a> page. In order to use Eigen in \cgal programs, the
executables should be linked with the CMake imported target
`CGAL::Eigen3_support` provided in `CGAL_Eigen3_support.cmake`.

The \eigen web site is <A HREF="http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page">`http://eigen.tuxfamily.org`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyOpenGR OpenGR

\opengr is a set C++ libraries for 3D Global Registration released under the terms of the APACHE V2 licence.

\cgal provides wrappers for the Super4PCS algorithm of \opengr in the \ref PkgPointSetProcessing3Ref
packages. In order to use \opengr in \cgal programs, the executables should be linked with the CMake imported target `CGAL::OpenGR_support` provided in `CGAL_OpenGR_support.cmake`.

The \opengr web site is <A HREF="https://github.com/STORM-IRIT/OpenGR">`https://github.com/STORM-IRIT/OpenGR`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartylibpointmatcher PointMatcher

\libpointmatcher is a modular library implementing the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm for aligning point clouds, released under a permissive BSD license.

\cgal provides wrappers for the ICP algorithm of \libpointmatcher in the \ref PkgPointSetProcessing3Ref
packages. In order to use \libpointmatcher in \cgal programs, the
executables should be linked with the CMake imported target
`CGAL::pointmatcher_support` provided in
`CGAL_pointmatcher_support.cmake`.

The \libpointmatcher web site is <A
HREF="https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher">`https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher`</A>.
\attention On Windows, we only support version 1.3.1 of PointMatcher with version 3.3.7 of Eigen, with some changes to the recipe at
`https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher/blob/master/doc/CompilationWindows.md`:`NABO_INCLUDE_DIR` becomes `libnabo_INCLUDE_DIRS`
and `NABO_LIBRARY` becomes `libnabo_LIBRARIES` in the "Build libpointmatcher" section.


\subsection thirdpartyLeda LEDA
<b>Version 6.2 or later</b>

\leda is a library of efficient data structures and
algorithms. Like \core, \leda offers a real number data type.

In \cgal this library is optional, and its number types can
be used as an alternative to \gmp, \mpfr, and \core.

Free and commercial editions of \leda are available from <A HREF="https://www.algorithmic-solutions.com">`https://www.algorithmic-solutions.com`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyMPFI Multiple Precision Floating-point Interval (MPFI)
<b>Version 1.4 or later</b>

\mpfi provides arbitrary precision interval arithmetic with intervals
represented using \mpfr reliable floating-point numbers.
It is based on the libraries \gmp and \mpfr.
In the setting of \cgal, this library is
optional: it is used by some models of the
\ref PkgAlgebraicKernelD "Algebraic Kernel".

\mpfi can be downloaded from <A HREF="https://gitlab.inria.fr/mpfi/mpfi">`https://gitlab.inria.fr/mpfi/mpfi`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyRS3 RS and RS3

\rs (Real Solutions) is devoted to the study of the real roots of
polynomial systems with a finite number of complex roots (including
univariate polynomials). In \cgal, \rs is used by one model of the
\ref PkgAlgebraicKernelD "Algebraic Kernel".

\rs is freely distributable for non-commercial use. You can download it
from <a href="http://vegas.loria.fr/rs/">`http://vegas.loria.fr/rs/`</a>. Actually, the \rs package also includes \rs3, the
successor of \rs, which is used in conjunction with it.

The libraries \rs and \rs3 need \mpfi, which can be downloaded from
<A HREF="https://gitlab.inria.fr/mpfi/mpfi">`https://gitlab.inria.fr/mpfi/mpfi`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyNTL NTL
<b>Version 5.1 or later</b>

\ntl provides data structures and algorithms for signed, arbitrary
length integers, and for vectors, matrices, and polynomials over the
integers and over finite fields. The optional library \ntl is used by \cgal
to speed up operations of the Polynomial package, such as GCDs. It is recommended to install \ntl with support from \gmp.

\ntl can be downloaded from <A HREF="https://libntl.org">`https://libntl.org`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyESBTL ESBTL

The \esbtl (Easy Structural Biology Template Library) is a library that allows
the handling of \pdb data.

In \cgal, the \esbtl is used in an example of the \ref PkgSkinSurface3 package.

It can be downloaded from <A HREF="http://esbtl.sourceforge.net/">`http://esbtl.sourceforge.net/`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyTBB Intel TBB

\tbb (Threading Building Blocks) is a library developed by Intel Corporation for writing software
programs that take advantage of multi-core processors.

In \cgal, \tbb is used by the packages that offer parallel
code. In order to use \tbb in \cgal programs, the executables
should be linked with the CMake imported target `CGAL::TBB_support`
provided in `CGAL_TBB_support.cmake`.

The \tbb web site is <A HREF="https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB">`https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyLASlib LASlib

\laslib is a `C++` library for handling LIDAR data sets stored in
the LAS format (or the compressed LAZ format).

In \cgal, \laslib is used to provide input and output functions in
the \ref PkgPointSetProcessing3 package. In order to use \laslib
in \cgal programs, the executables should be linked with the CMake
imported target `CGAL::LASLIB_support` provided in
`CGAL_LASLIB_support.cmake`.

The \laslib web site is <a
href="https://rapidlasso.com/lastools/">`https://rapidlasso.com/lastools/`</a>. \laslib
is usually distributed along with LAStools: for simplicity, \cgal
provides <a href="https://github.com/CGAL/LAStools">a fork with a
CMake based install procedure</a>.

\subsection thirdpartyOpenCV OpenCV

\opencv (Open Computer Vision) is a library designed for computer
vision, computer graphics and machine learning.

In \cgal, \opencv is used by the \ref PkgClassification
package. In order to use \opencv in \cgal programs, the
executables should be linked with the CMake imported target
`CGAL::OpenCV_support` provided in `CGAL_OpenCV_support.cmake`.

The \opencv web site is <A HREF="https://opencv.org/">`https://opencv.org/`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyMETIS METIS
<b>Version 5.1 or later</b>

\metis is a library developed by the <A HREF="http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/">Karypis Lab</A>
and designed to partition graphs and produce fill-reducing matrix orderings.

\cgal offers wrappers around some of the methods of the \metis library
to allow the partitioning of graphs that are models of the concepts of the
<A HREF="https://www.boost.org/libs/graph/doc/index.html">Boost Graph Library</A>,
and, by extension, of surface meshes (see Section \ref BGLPartitioning of the package \ref PkgBGL).

More information is available on the METIS library
at <A HREF="http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/metis/metis/overview">`http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/metis/metis/overview`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyzlib zlib

\zlib is a data compression library, and is essential for the component libCGAL_ImageIO.

In \cgal, this library is used in the examples of the \ref PkgSurfaceMesher3 package.

If it is not already on your system,
for instance, on Windows, you can download it from <A HREF="https://www.zlib.net/">`https://www.zlib.net/`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyCeres Ceres Solver

\ceres is an open source C++ library for modeling and solving large, complicated optimization problems.

In \cgal, \ceres is used by the \ref PkgPolygonMeshProcessingRef package for mesh smoothing, which
requires solving complex non-linear least squares problems.

Visit the official website of the library at <A HREF="http://ceres-solver.org/index.html">`ceres-solver.org`</A>
for more information.

\attention \ceres indicates that `glog` is a recommended dependency. `glog` has `libunwind` as a recommended dependency.
On some platforms, linking with `libunwind` was responsible for an increase of the runtime of the final application.
If you experience such an issue, we recommand to compile \ceres without `glog` support.

\subsection thirdpartyGLPK GLPK

\glpk (GNU Linear Programming Kit) is a library for solving linear programming (LP), mixed integer programming (MIP), and other related problems.

In \cgal, \glpk provides an optional linear integer program solver in the \ref PkgPolygonalSurfaceReconstruction package.
In order to use \glpk in \cgal programs, the executables should be linked with the CMake imported target `CGAL::GLPK_support` provided in `CGAL_GLPK_support.cmake`.

The \glpk web site is <A HREF="https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/">`https://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartySCIP SCIP

\scip (Solving Constraint Integer Programs) is currently one of the fastest open source solvers for mixed integer programming (MIP) and mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP).

In \cgal, \scip provides an optional linear integer program solver in the \ref PkgPolygonalSurfaceReconstruction package.
In order to use \scip in \cgal programs, the executables should be linked with the CMake imported target `CGAL::SCIP_support` provided in `CGAL_SCIP_support.cmake`.

The \scip web site is <A HREF="http://scip.zib.de/">`http://scip.zib.de/`</A>.

\subsection thirdpartyOSQP OSQP

\osqp (Operator Splitting Quadratic Program) is currently one of the fastest open source solvers for convex Quadratic Programs (QP).

In \cgal, \osqp provides an optional solver for the QP problems often arising in various computational geometry algorithms.
In order to use \osqp in \cgal programs, the executables should be linked with the CMake imported target `CGAL::OSQP_support` provided in `CGAL_OSQP_support.cmake`.

The \osqp web site is <A HREF="https://osqp.org">`https://osqp.org`</A>.

*/