[CMake] Source file symlinks on out-of-source builds

[Rodolfo Schulz de Lima]

On Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 12:41:59PM -0500, Bill Hoffman wrote:
> Tools like emacs and other build tools can be taught how to deal with
> the sources not being right there.   The symlinks will likely be a pain
> to maintain.   What happens when a file is removed in the source tree?
> Who updates the symlinks?  I guess every time CMake is run it could
> remove them all, and recreate them.  Or it could just collect dead
> links...  It sounds kind of complicated.

Well, CMake already does some complicated tricks (that's a compliment!).
I've made a talk about CMake yesterday to an audience of computer graphics
researchers and when I presented the notion of 'out-of-source builds' I
saw some blank stares when I said the source files just wouldn't be there
where the Makefile is (that's what they are used to).

About emacs/vi, they can locate the source file only if we're going
though an error list, as gcc spits out the path to the source files
involved. But if you want to load another file, you must do it yourself,
which can be irritating sometimes.

Well, that's only an idea :)

Best regards,
Rodolfo Lima