I tried two frameworks in the previous projects: Boost.Test, Google Test. Both of them fit well to the job, but my current task called for a simpler tool, especially concerning linking. Hence meet Catch.

The problem is that setting up build in Microsoft Visual Studio is challenging after convenience of Linux automated build systems like CMake. It’s easy to tune up matrix builds in a scripted environment. But that’s a nightmare in property sheets, trees and menus of the Studio.

Since Catch is header only library, the build is trivial: either throw the header under feet, or just point to it in Additional Include Directories, once for all build configurations.

Surprisingly, Catch is very popular, keeps up with Google Test today: GTest vs Catch.

Google Test vs Catch