Trying to get up to speed on this thread- apologies if I missed this. Long story short, as an OSS developer and new Cmake user, I'm less interested in getting libfoo building with Cmake and a lot more interested in CMake modules for detecting and using libfoo in my own project. In reality, these are very much interrelated, but let me explain....
A lot of the things I take for granted in Autotools requires me to roll my own in Cmake; which when you have a number of dependencies is daunting when you consider all the issues with different platforms & library versions. I think this is one of the biggest roadblocks for people to switch to Cmake- knowing that they're leaving behind years of tribal knowledge which has been created in Autoconf scripts. If there was an equivalent of the Autoconf Macro Archive (http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to/) for Cmake, which was a collection of common tests I think that would help a great deal. Obviously, Cmake already includes some of these sorts of tests for GUI toolkits and libraries of that nature, but obviously there are a lot of obvious holes in the list (gmp, pcre, (win)pcap, etc). Also there are a number of system capability tests missing like checking for strictly aligned memory. I'm currently having to write modules for a number of these cases and it's a lot of work. Honestly, it is more work then just porting my code from Autotools to Cmake because I'm already an expert on my code and how it compiles- trying to become an expert on these other libraries and systems is a lot more effort. Honestly, I think in the long run, improving the existing standard library of Cmake modules to allow developers to concentrate on how to build their own code rather then figure out how to link to various libraries and write portability tests will win grow the Cmake user base much faster. -- Aaron Turner http://synfin.net/ http://tcpreplay.synfin.net/ - Pcap editing and replay tools for Unix & Windows Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin _______________________________________________ Powered by www.kitware.com Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.cmake.org/mailman/listinfo/cmake
