[CMake] cmake-gui question

[Eric Noulard]

2009/4/5 Robert Dailey <rcdailey at gmail.com>:
> I noticed that in the cmake-gui application (Windows),

The behavior is the same on Linux.

> the drop-down box is
> on the binary directory edit field and not the source directory field. This
> seems backwards to me. Was this decision arbitrary or by design?

I don't know the reason, but I may say that:

1) If you choose the binary dir you'll automatically get
     the corresponding source tree, because the build knows it's
     source tree (by design).

2) If you choose a source tree you may have to chose between several
     binary trees because in fact you have a 1 -- n relationship
     between a source tree (the 1) and possibly many binary trees (the n)

> If the latter, why? Would it be possible to move the history listing to the source
> directory edit field?

I think it would be interesting but then cmake-gui may not be able to
"automatically" chose the corresponding build tree because there may
be more than one.

> The reason why I bring this up is because the binary output directory may
> not always make it very obvious as to which source directory you are
> building.

However once you selected the binary tree you precisely know (with no
possible error)
the corresponding source tree.

> It seems like the user would be more interested in knowing the
> history of source trees they have built instead of where those binaries were
> placed, which does not necessarily have to be a node within the source tree.

If I were about to implement the feature:

   - I would even say that I'll be more interested by a project name
than a pathname
     (I may check the path after the project has been selected)

   - the multiple build tree problem should be solved by some pop-up
and or message box
     telling that there exist more than one build tree corresponding
to the source tree/project.

My 2 cents.

-- 
Erk