[CMake] converting VS projects to CMake

[Brandon Van Every]

On Feb 8, 2008 1:14 PM, Sylvain Benner <benner at virtools.com> wrote:
> A convertion tool to CMake is not doable for large projects, because
> large projects need a framework to be viable. So migrating to CMake
> implies "making" or "migrating to" a new framework. A conversion tool
> could provide you with working CMakeLists.txt but you will lack a
> framework around them.

What do you mean by "framework?"  To me this is just a word.  I don't
understand what you're saying a big project has to have.  The project
I worked on was monolithic.  Not how I would have done it, but the
project evolved historically and that's what it was.

> Moreover, using a conversion tool means learn to use it which can be a
> big overhead for big projects since you have to fully understand:
> -how to use it correctly
> -what the conversion tool does
> -why it does it like this
> -why it does not do what you expect
> -what you need to do differently to suit your internal restriction
> -.....

Big projects are work no matter what.  What's your alternative, write
everything from scratch "so you don't have to learn anything?"  Makes
no sense.  I wrote a tool that was potentially capable of translating
all the thousands of Makefile.in's in the source tree to
CMakeList.txt.  Some of them had non-trivial amounts of build targets
in them that required elaborate re-chaining of dependencies.  So what
if they aren't perfect for your needs or you had to learn something
about how Autoconf + GMake differs from CMake?  You have to learn some
CMake no matter what and the tools are doing 95% of the work for you.

> All this to say that conversion tools for source files or other easy
> tasks are enough.

Ok, so you're on record as having your doubts and thinking this
wouldn't work for you.  I suppose that's a data point and dealing with
skepticism is an issue.  Anyone else feel more bullish about this?
Otherwise I guess it's not an open source problem.  More a case of if
I want it done right, I'll have to do it myself.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every