[CMake-Promote] CMake Rocks

Brandon J. Van Every bvanevery at gmail.com
Wed Sep 6 16:33:04 EDT 2006


Bill Hoffman wrote:
> So, when we started this list we were looking for a one word description
> that would go with CMake.   If you google "CMake Rocks", it is starting to become
> a popular saying.   I wonder if we should create a "CMake Rocks" web page with
> quotes and promotion stuff?
>   

Hell, why not?   I mean, it does.  "... Rocks!" is something that 
techies do say about stuff, it's proper lingo.  2 variations:

- CMake Rocks
- CMake Rocks!

The former sounds more "responsible" and is more likely to be seen on an 
overhead projector.  The latter sounds more "fanboy / enthusiast" and is 
more likely to be seen on a blog.  Fanboys are a perfectly valid 
marketing vector, especially if the fanboy provides substance for his 
claims.  I mean, you can gush positive at a conference and say, "This 
Rocks!" if it's actually true and you can demonstrate it to the crowd.  
But I don't think you want to use the exclamation point unless you're 
simultaneously backing up your claims.  Absent substance, people do 
regard "This Rocks!" from fanboys as just something they're currently 
masturbating over.

A really confident webpage would say, "CMake Rocks!" and immediately 
present all the strongest bullet points why it does.

So, what are the bullet points?  I want to be able to say, "It does 
everything Autoconf does, only better!" but that's not actually true.  
There's the cross-compilation issue, for instance.  Also the saddle sore 
of "we don't have to install anything for Autoconf."  I think getting 
into comparos with Autoconf, at least on the marketing homepage, is an 
invitation to resistance and negging.  Also there are other build 
systems for CMake to compete against, like SCons.

Bullet points I feel good about:

- modern, integrated architecture (an indirect knock on m4 | Autoconf | 
Automake)
- supports all major OSes, not just Unix shells
- faster than Unix shells
- generates native Visual Studio build files, for VS6..VS8
- supports Darwin
- BSD license
- responsive development team, mailing list, and community

Feel free to add your own.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every




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