[CMake] Feature requests for CMake-GUI

[Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian]

2010/1/14 Michael Wild <themiwi at gmail.com>

>
> On 14. Jan, 2010, at 11:00 , Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Michael Wild <themiwi at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On 14. Jan, 2010, at 10:43 , Michael Wild wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi all
> >>>
> >>> I normally never use cmake-gui, but did so for writing installation
> >> instructions. While doing so I came across some oddities and things that
> >> would be useful:
> >>>
> >>> - It seems to be impossible to see the cache-variable descriptions
> >>>
> >>> - Since cmake now has the --build option, it would be great if
> cmake-gui
> >> had the option of running some common targets (such as all, clean and
> >> install).
> >>>
> >>> Are these items on the todo-list already, or should I open
> >> feature-request for them in the tracker?
> >>>
> >>> Michael
> >>
> >> Before I forget:
> >>
> >> If the generator is associated with an IDE, it would be nice being able
> to
> >> fire that one up!
> >>
> >
> > What's your take on inverting the problem? IDEs being able to fire up
> > cmake-gui (via a plugin or whatever). The thing is that with many IDEs
> (QT
> > creator, KDevelop4, Eclipse [one of the 2 ways of using it] ) you don't
> > invoke an IDE-specific generator, but generate plain makefiles, so if
> your
> > feature request is implemented, many IDEs would be unable to take
> advantage
> > of it.
> >
> > Btw, KDevelop4 already implements something similar, but does not fire up
> > cmake-gui explicitly, but a (less-flexible) custom widget.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Adolfo
>
> I try to look at it from the perspective of a user wanting to build and
> install a package from source. The user downloads the source code, unpacks
> it, fires up cmake-gui, specifies a build directory, configures the project
> and hits "Generate". He then wants to start the build, but first has to
> navigate to the build tree, identify and open the generated project file.
> Especially identifying the correct project file isn't that easy for
> non-developers, especially in the case of Visual Studio.
>
> He isn't like the developer who has the project open in an IDE all the time
> and wants to start cmake-gui from there. He doesn't want to hack on the
> code, he just wants to get the "warez" installed with a minimum of clicks
> and questions asked.
>
> Either:
>
> - cmake-gui should be able to fire up some well-known IDE's (such as Xcode
> or Visual Studio) where the user can hit the build button (this is probably
> what developers and casual hackers would use, so could be hidden in a menu)
>
> - offer the "build", "install" and "clean" buttons itself (that's what the
> normal user is probably looking for, so it should be right next to
> "Generate")
>
> - open a file browser in the build directory (and the source directory
> would be also useful... Again, this is probably stuff programmers are
> interested in)
>
> If it were for me, I'd like to have all three of them ;-)
>
> Michael


Why do you need a user to run cmake-gui + an IDE? do you require them to
tweak cmake cache variables?, because otherwise you could automate the whole
process with a fire&forget script. I think that for users that just want to
get the "warez" installed, doing all the cmake+IDE thing will still be
entering uncharted waters ;)
Also, if they are not developers (which I'm guess they're not), wouldn't it
be a good idea to use CPack and your package generator of choice?

Adolfo
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/attachments/20100114/4751b450/attachment.htm>