On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 09:49:24PM -0500, Bo Peng wrote: > I hit send by accident.... here is a better version. > > >So what's the status of scons and cmake now? > > > >Is either able to replace autotools right now or are there still some > >targets working with autotools only? > > I can not speak for Peter, so I can only compare scons with autotools, > > Convenience: scons > autotools. > > After your first run, which may need some parameters to set qt_dir > etc, all subsequent runs are simple commands like 'scons install'. No > autogen and configure stuff. > > Performance: scons ~ autotools. > > null build of scons seems to be a bit slower. > > Installation: scons > autotools > > scons is much easier to install than autotools, and version > compatibility of autotools can be a nightmare. > > Reliability: scons > autotools > > autotools may fail after successful configure because of incomplete > check. scons seems to be better. Also, autogen.sh and configure may be > needed from time to time, and you can know that only after make fails. > > Portability: scons > autotools > > The same command work for linux, windows (cygwin, mingw, msvc), > solaris, but not tested under mac. > > Maintainability: scons > autotools > > Python is easier to read/write than m4, and you can use Python to do > all sort of things (regular expression, file system operations ...) > easily. > > Distribution: scons < autotools > > No 'make dist', 'make distcheck' yet. I can program those but the > features are already in a branch of scons/svn. I am told that they > will be there in scons 1.0. Anyway, scons can build windows installers > easily. > > In summary, scons can almost replace autotools, but not now.
When is scons 1.0 to be expected? It would be nice if we could get rid of autotools rather sooner than later (not because it doesn't do its job - which it does - but because of the clumsy usage) I don't care much about what the replacement is, and I think I personally could even live with a solution along the lines of 'use system Foo for daily work, and Bar for "make dist" & Co.' Andre'
