There seems to be several different discussions which are taking place as a response to your comment. It might be good to have a more consolidated reference since different people are attacking different aspects of your argument, so of which are a little unfair.[I am not a native speaker so I may have misunderstood some points or will misrepresent them]

Reasons why people like single file libs:

* Easy for a beginner to use.

* No non-obvious dependencies. (check includes to see them) * Easy to repackage for multiple OS's

* Easy to understand since each reference is in the same file.

* Typically simpler and have fewer features(which can help one focus on the main issues.)

* No need for either static or dynamic linking, although it is basically the same as static linking in some ways.

* Eliminates the need for dependency management.

Reasons against single file libraries:

* No isolation of components. (The interface and implementation are in the same file)

* Adding new feature may make the library too complicated(which can lead to some features being denied)

* A bit harder to maintain. Since the interface and implementation are the same, some users may depend on internal interfaces. Which can inhibit changes needed for performance.

* May encourage bad behaviour, since the user need never learn to link against a third party library. If the culture changes enough there may be many people contributing who are not able to use standard tools in the standard way. (The idea that beginners should learn the culture that is used by the toolmakers.)

Hopefully this is useful for someone, and I hope I did not misrepresent any opinions.[Also huge fan of Drew]