CometImageCodec (Pure C Core)

A high-performance, zero-dependency image codec engine written in pure C for macOS 13+. CometImageCodec provides an extensible architecture for encoding and decoding modern image formats with a focus on speed, safety, and memory efficiency.

Key Features

• Pure C Engine: Lightweight core with no external runtime dependencies.
• Native Format Support: Built-in support for WebP and AVIF.
• Performance Optimized:
  • SIMD: Native acceleration using ARM NEON (Apple Silicon) and SSE4.2 (Intel).
  • Multi-threading: Lock-free thread pool for parallel batch processing.
  • Memory-Efficient: Streaming I/O and memory-mapped processing for large-scale images.
• Extensible Architecture: Pluggable format handler system allowing developers to add new codecs without modifying the core engine.
• Memory Safety: Centralized memory management with tracking and bounds checking.
• Universal Binary: Fully compatible with both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs.

Supported Formats

Format	Read (Decode)	Write (Encode)	Features
WebP	✅	✅	Lossy, Lossless, Metadata (EXIF/XMP/ICC)
AVIF	✅	✅	8/10-bit depth, High efficiency

Note: The core engine is designed to be bridged to higher-level frameworks (like Swift/AppKit) to support additional system formats via ImageIO.

Architecture

The engine is divided into several specialized layers:

• CICEngine: Core coordinator and job management.
• FormatHandlers: Pluggable modules for specific codecs (WebP, AVIF).
• CICThreadPool: High-concurrency job scheduler.
• CICSIMD: Hardware-specific compute optimizations.
• CICMemory: Scoped memory tracking for leak-free operations.

Integration

Prerequisites

• macOS 13.0+
• Xcode Command Line Tools
• libwebp and libavif source/libraries (for static linking)

Building the Core

CometImageCodec is designed to be statically linked into your application.

# Example build steps
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

Developer Usage (C API)

#include "cic_engine.h"

// 1. Initialize Engine
CICConfig config = { .thread_count = 0, .max_memory_mb = 512 };
CICEngine* engine = cic_engine_create(&config);

// 2. Prepare Job
CICJobParams params = {
    .input_path = "input.jpg",
    .output_path = "output.webp",
    .output_format = CIC_FORMAT_WEBP,
    .quality = { .value = 85, .lossless = false }
};

// 3. Submit Job
CICJobHandle handle = cic_engine_submit_job(engine, &params);

// 4. Wait & Cleanup
cic_engine_wait(engine, handle);
cic_engine_destroy(engine);

License

[Insert License Here - e.g., MIT]

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Created by Bora Ata Türkoğlu & The Comet Editor Team.