Hello Everyone, Recently there has been discussion on the list about the Eclipse IDE (or whatever it is; platform maybe ;) ) and CMake.
http://www.cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2007-July/015294.html http://www.cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2007-July/015434.html So, I don't know much about Eclipse (i.e., I started using it last week) and very little about CMake Generator development, but I still gave it a shot at developing an Eclipse Generator. I have an implementation which I'm sure is missing many things and is in need of much refactoring, but I used it to compile, edit, and debug CMake source files (the actual generator stuff) with the project created by it for Eclipse. The rest of this message is divided into two parts. First, I'm requesting guidance and support from the community and the CMake developers, and the second one is just my points of views on the previous discussions about a CMake Plugin for Eclipse. Guidance and support: ================ 1. Are the CMake developers interested in this (i.e., will they accept the patches)? If so, how should I coordinate this development. I don't think patches through the bug tracker will be appropriate for this given the rate of change it is likely to have. Limited cvs access would be best, or maybe through a wiki entry until it matures. Then the bug tracker would suffice. So far, I have modified only cmake.cxx to add the extra generator handle [this->AddExtraGenerator(...)], the CMakeLists.txt file to add the two new files, and the two new files themselves: Source/cmExtraEclipseGenerator.cxx Source/cmExtraEclipseGenerator.h 2. As I mentioned, I'm new to Eclipse so, I don't know how people use it. I need volunteers to test the generator and let me know what things don't work as expected. Basically, I'm "reverse engineering" the .project/.cproject files to create the generator. So, in many cases I just don't have examples of more complex scenarios. Note that this is a simple generator (an extra generator), since it relies on the "Unix Makefiles" generator to handle all the difficult issues. So, I'm not looking to provide a generator for eclipse that will create a managedmakefile project; at least not at this point. I am looking to implement the Eclipse generator on top of the MinGW, MSYS, and maybe NMake (depending on the Eclipse CDT support for it). Opinion on the CMake plugin discussion: ============================== So far, it seems to me that the discussion has been steering in the opposite direction from what I actually thought was more useful and what I implemented. That is, a CMake generator rather than an Eclipse plugin. What I want is to be able to download a project with CMakeLists.txt files in it and create an out-of-source build that I can open in eclipse and start hacking away. Of course, it would be nice if we could convince the Eclipse CDT developers of how useful cmake really is and that way enlist them to help us out when we need questions answered and fixes/modifications to their plugin so that cmake can generate useful .project/.cproject files easier. Much like CMake opened up for KDE (of course, those were opposite roles...). But then again, how much interest does Microsoft have in CMake, or how much do they invest in it? However, I would never go back to creating Visual Studio projects from scratch, nor any other build system for that matter! Kudos to the CMake crew!! ;) Now, I think it doesn't matter what the Eclipse developers nor the Eclipse CDT developers think about CMake... In the end, it's what the C/C++ developers using Eclipse as their development platform think about CMake, whether or not the underlying format for the Eclipse project files is open or not (which it is of course) so that we can create the generator for it, and whether Eclipse CDT imports already existing projects nicely (which it does). BTW, there is a CMake plugin for eclipse that helps in editing CMakeLists.txt and *.cmake files. It provides syntax coloring, full content assist and integrates the CMake command reference documentation into the Eclipse Help system. Just some thoughts on the matter... --Miguel _______________________________________________ CMake mailing list CMake@cmake.org http://www.cmake.org/mailman/listinfo/cmake