# orangeduck/Cello

Higher level programming in C

Repository: https://github.com/orangeduck/Cello
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cello
Homepage: http://libcello.org/
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2024-12-01T16:32:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5159, "days_push": 640, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7128, forks 386 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:56.098766+00:00)

## What it is
Cello is a C library that adds a higher-level runtime system to C, providing generic data structures, polymorphism, interfaces/type classes, optional garbage collection, exceptions, and reflection. It works seamlessly alongside standard C code using tagged fat pointers compatible with normal C pointers.

## Use cases
- write generic data structures in C
- add garbage collection to C programs
- use interfaces and type classes in C
- handle exceptions in C
- get reflection and runtime type information in C
- write polymorphic functions in C

## When to choose
- you want higher-level abstractions while staying in C
- you need generic collections and iteration in C
- you want optional garbage collection without changing compilers
- you want to interoperate with existing C code and tooling

## When to avoid
- you need a non-restrictive license (license is custom/NOASSERTION)
- you need maximum performance with zero runtime overhead
- your team prefers plain idiomatic C or a language with native abstractions like C++ or Rust
- you need a large active community or frequent updates

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: programming-language, concurrency, error-handling, developer-tools
- domain: programming-languages, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, c
- tags: high-level-c, runtime-system, garbage-collection, generic-data-structures, type-classes, reflection, fat-pointers, algorithms, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- orangeduck/Cello (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:56.098766+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 2026-08-29T17:40:03.876126+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/orangeduck/Cello (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:56.098766+00:00, sha f4f5b2cc5b6e)
  - homepage: http://libcello.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:35:35.156894+00:00, sha ed0ec01ce889)
  - site_page: https://libcello.org/learn/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:35:35.160668+00:00, sha 92ce4f49bb5f)
  - site_page: https://libcello.org/learn/quickstart (fetched 2026-08-29T08:35:35.162618+00:00, sha c7bce5ca8c83)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.