[CMake-Promote] CMake Rocks

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> 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. [...]

> 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. 

Here's some comparative evidence of what you can say at a conference, 
and what people's reactions will be:

"Why Lisp macros are cool, a Perl perspective" by Ben Tilly
http://lists.warhead.org.uk/pipermail/iwe/2005-July/000130.html
[first gives a treatise on the numerous pitfalls of C macros]

[quote]
A few years ago I gave a conference talk in which I asserted that the 
C++ macro system blows goat dick. This remark has since become somewhat 
notorious, and the C++ fans hate me for it. But I did not think at the 
time that this would be controversial. I was sure that even the most 
rabid C++ fans would agree with me that the C++ macro system blows goat 
dick, for the reasons I have just described. In short: because it can 
hardly do anything useful, and because the very few things it can do are 
difficult and complicated and fraught with perilous traps for the 
unwary. I really thought they would all say "Yes, I love C++, in spite 
of its awful macro system." As usual, I forgot what rabid programming 
language fans are like; they can and will defend any system, no matter 
how dysfunctional, as long as it's *their* dysfunctional sytem.
[/quote]

I think there's a lesson in this about converting the Autoconf crowd.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every