[CMake] improve the CMake language?

[Mike Jackson]

On Nov 8, 2007, at 10:10 AM, P. Fleury wrote:

>
> On 11/8/07, Bill Hoffman <bill.hoffman at kitware.com> wrote:
> Gonzalo Garramuño wrote:
>
>
> [...] Also, I am
> not sure having N languages for CMake would be the best approach.  So,
> you go to build a project, and hey they are using CMake, cool, I know
> how to run CMake, oh wait, that one is ruby CMake, I need to get the
> ruby CMake to build it.  Would Kitware have to distribute N binaries?
> One of the biggest complaints about CMake, is that it requires  
> CMake to
> be installed in order to do the build.  What if it required N  
> different
> binaries where N was decided on by the project doing the build.  I  
> just
> don't think that would be in the best interest of the community.   
> At the
> end of the day CMake should be like make, it should be a binary  
> utility
> that is available by default on every OS.  It is a single interface so
> that if you know how to use it in one place you can use it in another.
>
> I totally agree with this point. The least I want is to have to  
> configure/build the build system before I get to the actual  
> project. That, from my POV, also applies to the 'language as a  
> plugin to cmake' approach, as one may not have the appropriate  
> plugin to build project X, and has to download/built it from svn  
> etc. I feel this is way more pain in the long run than being stuck  
> with a particular programming language.
>
>
>
> -Bill
>

As a user of CMake let me second this notion also. CMake only depends  
on a C++ compiler which is every where. Tying CMake to Ruby, Perl, tk  
or anything else may actually decrease CMake's market penetration. I  
don't really see Ruby running on a Cray but CMake will. Same deal  
with lots of other HPC type machines. CMake provides me the ability  
to easily compile my source codes on many different HPC machines with  
ease. I can build cmake in my local directory if needed and not have  
to worry about all the supporting being up to date or at a specific  
version. Are there things that CMake can NOT do? Sure. Same with ANY  
language. Use the right tool for the job. If you don't like CMake or  
think it is holding you back then you can either fork the CMake code  
(which is a bad idea IMNSHO) or find another build system.

Cheers
-- 
Mike Jackson   Senior Research Engineer
Innovative Management & Technology Services

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