[CMake] Hard to find the sources of cmake

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2007-07-15 16:31+0200 Manuel Yguel wrote:

> Hello,
> I did go to the cmake website: http://www.cmake.org/
> I did pick up what seems to be the cmake sources for me on the page
> http://www.cmake.org/HTML/Download.html
> I downloaded the file cmake-2.4.6-Linux-i386.tar.gz
>
> But when I extracted the tarball I get three directories:
> bin, doc and share with a lot of things inside but no bootstrap executable
> file.
>
>
> Googleing a bit I found the following post:
> http://public.kitware.com/pipermail/vtkusers/2007-April/090436.html that
> point towards a file not directly visible from the download page:
> http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.4/cmake-2.4.6.tar.gz
>
> Then using this file I could successfully install cmake from the sources
> following the install webpage instructions.
>
> The download and the install pages of the cmake website seem not to be
> synchronized.
> I really didn't know what to do with the files extracted with the linux
> archive.
>
> So please update the documentation or explain me when I read wrong your
> guidelines.

I will try to take up this challenge.  :-)

The cmake-2.4.6.tar.gz file you found another way is identified as source at
http://cmake.org/HTML/Download.html.  However, the identification is "Unix
Linefeed Source" which will be confusing to Linux users who do not realize
Linux is Unix and/or who have never heard of the windows/Linux line-end
differences.  What is needed is an explanatory sentence on both the install
page and download page explaining the source code files.  I suggest
something like the following: "To build from source on Windows use the
"Windows Linefeed Source". To build from source on Unix platforms (e.g.,
Linux, Darwin/OSX, IRIX, SunOS, HPUX, AIX) use the "Unix Linefeed Source".

To the CMake developers: Could we get some quick action on putting in such
an explanatory sentence on the install and download websites? There should
be no reason for users such as Manuel to be confused about where to get the
Linux source.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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