Charles Huet wrote: > * cmCacheManager::AddCacheEntry was made public, as cmake::Configure > cannot be used from python (it check for the existence of a CMakeLists.txt > file, which does not exist in this scenario) and the cache variables it > sets seem to be necessary.
Because of the above, I worry that you are basing your work on an old version of CMake. As of April 2015 cmState is used as the interface to the cache. https://cmake.org/gitweb?p=cmake.git;a=commitdiff;h=a6b1ad13 Also note that the C++ interfaces in CMake are not stable. In the last year they have been changed utterly and that will continue to happen without notice. I'm sure you know this, but I thought I'd say it anyway. > I will try to make a layer of abstraction on top of the python bindings > before publishing this work on github, in order to show the syntactic > sugar python can provide, but I will publish this before if anybody is > interested in working on this. I would be interested in seeing it. > Now, does anyone beside me think this is a good idea ? I did something similar some years ago with QML instead of python, so it sounds interesting to me. In fact, one of the reasons for introducing cmState and doing all the refactoring I did in cmake was to make it possible to cleanly replace the language, some day. My guess is that you are using python to instantiate a cmAddLibraryCommand and then executing it. I think a better approach would be to leave all the cm*Command classes behind as they carry a lot of backward compatibility baggage and policies which a new language shouldn't be burdened with. Even much of cmMakefile shouldn't be used by a new language. Instead certain parts of cmMakefile should be extracted as other classes (cmVariableExpander which should have the ExpandVariablesInString and ConfigureString stuff, cmMessenger for the IssueMessage stuff, some other class for the CompileFeature stuff etc). Then cmMakefile would be just about executing and scoping the CMake language. A new language would not need that, but would use the refactored extracted classes. So, you would implement new cmPython*Command or whatever which operate on those classes and cmState. cmState is designed to be a language-agnostic store of data, like a database of buildsystem state. As I said though, this would require further refactoring of the cmake code. I can provide guidance on how to do that if you are interested in pursuing that route. It would take some months I think, but be very valuable for many reasons and long-term cmake features. Another example of the kind of refactoring I mean is putting target state in cmState and making it accessible through cmState::Target, similar to how cmState::Directory currently works. Having said all that, Brad favors Lua I believe, and he favors a different approach (which no one is working on as far as I know) to adding a new language. So wait to hear from him to know whether it is something that would be upstreamable. I would prefer an approach similar to what I described above, which is close to what you are doing, so as a proof of concept I would like to see your work. I would guide/support you in refactoring cmake as needed. The refactoring part would definitely be upstreamable. I would very much like to see a proof of concept alternative language even if that wasn't upstreamed. It would prove that another language is possible, and that's one of the steps to replacing the current cmake language I think. Thanks, Steve. -- Powered by www.kitware.com Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more information on each offering, please visit: CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/cmake-developers
