[CMake] Mac installation and cultural issues

[Brandon Van Every]

On Dec 22, 2007 4:24 PM, Bill Hoffman <bill.hoffman at kitware.com> wrote:
> I still don't see the reason for the strong resistance to using an
> installer program.  Many Apple products including Xcode use one.

Clearly a cultural issue.  You're running afoul of "Mac native"
culture as opposed to cross-platform development culture.  I don't
think platform bigots on any platform are to be taken too seriously.
If they actually need to do cross-platform development, they will use
whatever method actually works in practice.  In that world view, you
ship an installer, use it to configure the PATH options, and end the
debate.

That said, newbies may have a "bitch, moan, then accept" period to go
through.  The danger is they may instead go through "bitch, moan, then
reject."  They may not have sought out CMake, it may have semi-forced
upon them.  If they have a choice, i.e. if they're not going to get
fired for rejecting CMake, then they may jolly well reject CMake on
insubstantive grounds.  For example, they might be a native MacOS
developer at some company, and the Windows or other cross-platform
group is floating CMake as a pilot project.  The company may care
about cross-platform development and CMake, but the individual
employee may not.  Enough grousing native MacOS developers might
prevent the use of CMake.  They might even prevent any cross-platform
corporate strategy, if they have sufficient lame excuses / ammunition
to force their point of view.

So, I'm saying there's a motive to make CMake "palatable" to a native
MacOS bigot.  It's a way of converting such a person into a bona fide
cross-platform developer (who does not care about such trivia
anymore).  Which in turn is a way of converting organizations.
Particularly in larger organizations, there are many teams running
around, competing with each other for the focus of the company.  The
ascendancy or decline of any given team may depend upon touchy feely
issues, not necessarily core technical merit.

In that world view, you'd add "first run invokes path configuration"
because it gives native MacOS bigots a warm squishy feeling.  Then
they're singing the praises of CMake instead of bitching and moaning
about it.

The first invocation doesn't have to be through a GUI either.  ITon
the command line, either from CMake's installation directory or from
an absolute path.