[CMake-Promote] creating a market for CMake skills

[Brandon J. Van Every]

"What problems will people pay money to have others solve them with CMake?"

That's a question I'd like to see answered.  I have, for instance, just 
sunk about 4 months into my CMake learning curve.  I'm keeping my "Open 
Sores" habit going with a job that has nothing to do with computers, let 
alone CMake.  In the absence of money, I'm not sure such a business 
model is viable.  Seems like I can either say, ok, time to sink the 
learning curve into tools that people pay for... or else figure out how 
to make people pay for CMake skills.

So I'm interested in your thoughts on that.  Particularly if you know 
anyone who got paid specifically to convert a project to CMake, that 
wasn't just an incidental duty or experiment as an employee.

Now granted, I think better docs are a prerequisite to being taken 
seriously by a large audience.  I intend to put effort into that, ahead 
of other promotional priorities.  Also we'll really need the features 
and bugfixes of CMake 2.3 to advance the cause.  Nevertheless, I ask for 
people's thoughts on the $$$$$ matter because I do think it is important 
for growth.  Money focuses people.

If this question sounds tantamount to "How do you consult?" i.e. too 
broad, possibly naive, well yes I'll admit I never made it to the 
consulting stage.  Somehow over the past 8 years since I quit my job at 
DEC, I learned how to do R&D and not make money at it.  :-)  Still, I 
think there are probably things people want to see before someone, like 
myself, starts pitching them on how their life could be better with CMake.

My instinct is that the primary target market is large Autoconf-based 
projects.  That is, projects with money attached to them.  I'm thinking 
"from scratch" projects are less viable, because they don't know they're 
in trouble yet.  Whereas lotsa people feel Autoconf pain.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every