https://github.com/alberto-lazari/grain

C++ memory manager for grain-sized objects
https://github.com/alberto-lazari/grain

cmake cpp-library cpp20 memory-allocator memory-management modern-cpp small-object-optimization

Last synced: 4 months ago
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C++ memory manager for grain-sized objects

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/alberto-lazari/grain
• Owner: alberto-lazari
• Created: 2025-08-16T14:58:58.000Z (5 months ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-08-16T16:52:09.000Z (5 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-08-16T17:19:19.291Z (5 months ago)
• Topics: cmake, cpp-library, cpp20, memory-allocator, memory-management, modern-cpp, small-object-optimization
• Language: C++
• Homepage:
• Size: 32.2 KB
• Stars: 0
• Watchers: 0
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: readme.md

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README

          
# 🌾 Grain

A C++ memory manager for grain-sized objects.

Developed as final project of the *Advanced C++* course for the Master in Computer Game Development.

## Overview

The project is based on Andrei Alexandrescu's `SmallObjectAllocator`,

described in his *Modern C++ Design* book.

The generic, long names he used in his implementation looked pretty ugly to me,

so I decided to give them a farming twist,

mapping each to a concrete item related to grains of wheat:

| Name      | Analogy                                  | Original Name          |

| --------- | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------- |

| `Granary` | Main storage of different kinds of grain | `SmallObjectAllocator` |

| `Sack`    | Set of grains of the same kind (size)    | `FixedAllocator`       |

| `Handful` | A small handful of grains                | `Chunk`                |

| `Grain`   | Smallest distributable unit              | Memory block           |

> [!NOTE]

> I'm well aware that this entire *grain metaphor*-thing makes the code pretty unreadable,

> but readability and usability in general are really not the point here.

>

> This is a simple University project, aiming to replicate an existing implementation,

> and is obviously not meant to appear in real-world codebases.

> I just wanted to have some fun while working on it.

## Build and Test

The project comes with a cross-platform CMake configuration.

You can build the project from the command line or open it as a folder in Visual Studio,

leaving it to the IDE to automatically load the targets.

Tests are split into separate executables that you can run from the CMake targets. \

On POSIX you can run them all with a simple `make test`.