I'm using a couple of external libraries and I'd rather not have to include all their source and header files in my main source directory or in my project file. One option would be to compile the libraries as lib files and link them like that. However I'm not sure the defines get evaluated before or after the lib file gets created (which one is it?). If it's before then obviously I can't just pack them because they might not work properly on different compilers or systems.

So if I can't pack the libraries as lib files, is there any way for me to link in the c or cpp source files? Probably not, since they would have to be compiled first, but maybe I'm wrong.

Edit: Here's a follow-up question, based on answers. Do you think it'd be too much of a hassle to have a makefile that creates the lib files? I'd still rather not add the sources to my project or in my source directory.