# bloomberg/bde

Basic Development Environment - a set of foundational C++ libraries used at Bloomberg.

Repository: https://github.com/bloomberg/bde
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bde
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: allocators, cpp-library, cpp, cpp11, polymorphic-allocators
Last push: 2026-08-25T15:15:03+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5045, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1838, forks 341 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:42.795588+00:00)

## What it is
BDE (Basic Development Environment) is Bloomberg's set of foundational C++ libraries, comprising BSL (Basic Standard Library), BDL (Basic Development Library), BAL (Basic Application Library), and BBL (Basic Business Library). It provides battle-tested building blocks such as allocators, containers, smart pointers, date/time utilities, JSON handling, and application-level primitives used across Bloomberg's C++ codebase.

## Use cases
- build C++ applications with production-grade foundational libraries
- use polymorphic allocators and custom memory management in C++
- get reliable date/time, JSON, and container utilities for C++
- adopt a consistent C++ coding and library framework across a large codebase
- replace ad-hoc C++ utility code with a mature, tested library suite
- build cross-platform C++ services with a common application library

## When to choose
- you are writing substantial C++ applications or services and want Bloomberg-grade foundational libraries
- you need fine-grained control over memory allocation via polymorphic allocators
- you want a coherent, internally consistent set of C++ libraries rather than assembling many small ones
- you are already in an ecosystem (e.g., Bloomberg's open-source tools) that builds on BDE

## When to avoid
- you only need a single small utility and prefer lightweight header-only libraries
- your project is tightly coupled to the C++ standard library and STL idioms without room for BDE conventions
- you cannot adopt BDE's build system and coding conventions
- you are working in a language other than C++

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: developer-tools, concurrency, serialization, logging, testing, caching, error-handling, configuration-management
- domain: developer-tools, backend, cross-platform, performance
- platform: cpp, cross-platform, windows
- tags: cpp11, allocators, polymorphic-allocators, bsl, bdl, bal, bbl, bloomberg, foundational-libraries, cmake-build, memory-management, containers, datetime, json, algorithms, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- bloomberg/bde (main) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:42.795588+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:18:16.032174+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bloomberg/bde (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:42.795588+00:00, sha b9f2beb2bff1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.