  OpenCL is an open standard for parallel programming of heterogeneous compute
devices, such as GPUs, CPUs, DSPs or FPGAs. However, the verbosity of its C
host API can hinder application development. In this paper we present cf4ocl, a
software library for rapid development of OpenCL programs in pure C. It aims to
reduce the verbosity of the OpenCL API, offering straightforward memory
management, integrated profiling of events (e.g., kernel execution and data
transfers), simple but extensible device selection mechanism and user-friendly
error management. We compare two versions of a conceptual application example,
one based on cf4ocl, the other developed directly with the OpenCL host API.
Results show that the former is simpler to implement and offers more features,
at the cost of an effectively negligible computational overhead. Additionally,
the tools provided with cf4ocl allowed for a quick analysis on how to optimize
the application.
