[CMake-Promote] Generic Instructions

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Andy Cedilnik wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Ok, I am working on part of CMake and I will need those generic 
> instructions. 


Ok I will stop being so lazy.  :-)  Building OpenGL stuff is my priority 
today though.

> I would really like to have multiple files. One would be generic 
> readme, generic install, and generic license.

I don't understand the idea of either a generic readme or a generic 
license.  Every open source project I've ever looked at, the README is 
something the authors of the project compose themselves.  I'm not seeing 
how anything sensible could be done otherwise.  Has your experience been 
different? 

Meanwhile, there are no generic licenses.  The GPL and LGPL are 
*popular* licenses that people often throw into things, but I would not 
confuse them for "generic."  http://www.opensource.org/ is a 
comprehensive inventory of all the various open source licenses out 
there, and there are templates for every flavor you might be interested 
in.  This is again the personal choice of the software author.  I don't 
see how we can or should have anything to say about other people's 
licensing choices.

>
> As far as the names goes, I would really vote for:
>
> README.txt
> INSTALL.txt
> LICENSE.txt

>
> With an option of being:
>
> README-CMAKE.txt
> ....

I think consistency and web trackability argue for sticking to 1 thing 
that people expect to find in 1 place.  *-CMake.txt is desireable 
because it avoids name collisions.  The reason to choose 
INSTALL-CMake.txt is because it will alphebatize at the same place as 
the GNU Autoconf INSTALL file.  Part of the idea is to get people to 
transition from Autoconf to CMake builds, which means that for awhile, 
projects will have an Autoconf INSTALL and an INSTALL-CMake.txt in the 
same source tree.  For such transitional projects, I'd hate to think of 
people using the old Autoconf code just because they had an instinct to 
look for an INSTALL file.

Personally I am satisfied with INSTALL-CMake.txt, and Bill voted for 
it.  I consider it a decision.

>
> Then we could have CMake actually generate those files if they do not 
> exist and complain to the user. This way people who do not have it 
> would get a copy from CMake and people who have it, well CMake would 
> use theirs.
>
Well, generating INSTALL-CMake.txt sounds reasonable, and that obviates 
the need to complain about it.  Complaining that someone doesn't have a 
README.txt or LICENSE.txt is very, very unreasonable.  It's not our 
business.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
I won't spend more than 1 day configuring 1 thing.