[Insight-users] Using ITK with visual studio and not cmake

[Mark Roden]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 9:35 AM, John Drescher <drescherjm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I want to incorporate more libraries than just itk in my project, and
>> am having a pretty hard time of it.
>>
> I can tell you as a 12 year windows programmer before ever using
> CMake, its much much easier to do this with cmake. And also cmake
> actually a lot of benefit to visual studio. Out of source builds,
> built in unit testing, built in install generator, ability to have one
> project file for all versions of visual studio VC6+... Eventually I
> will convert all my old projects to use cmake and drop the .vsproj and
> .dsp files out of my cvs repository...

I have a similar level of experience here, and I'm just not that into
cmake.  I've learned quite a few tricks with sln files and the like,
and figuring out yet another set of build rules and yet another set of
unit testing paradigms and a different source control system (I use
either git or perforce, cvs just gives me hives) is a real distraction
from getting work done.

Let me put it this way: the CMake paradigm adopted by itk, that of
single files to accomplish a simple task, is fine for little command
line applications, but not how I want to build an application.  If I
wanted to incorporate other libraries (ie, QT for useful interfaces,
etc), trying to mesh these libraries with those will be most likely
excruciating.  That's why I'm looking for a simple build location,
with dlls, libs, and headers, not to incorporate with an entire coding
paradigm.

Maybe I don't understand CMake.  Frankly, I really don't want to.  I
just want to use the libraries as libraries, not as a coding style or
as a way to organize files.

>
>>
>> I've built the libraries using the cmake options to build only libraries.
>>
>> I then have a basic hello-world executable that links to the built
>> libraries and includes the itk/code/common directory.
>>
>> I then #include "itkImage.h" at the top of my main file, and have the
>> body of the main function matching the example from HelloWorld.cxx in
>> examples/installation
>>
>> When I try to build, I get this error:
>>
>> 1>c:\users\mark\src\itktests\itktestproject\itk
>> libraries\code\common\itkwin32header.h(23) : fatal error C1083: Cannot
>> open include file: 'itkConfigure.h': No such file or directory
>>
>> How do I fix this?  I can't find the itkConfigure.h file anywhere;
>> does cmake not make it automatically?
>>
> Yes, that should be inside the build tree. I have my ITK source at
>
> X:\CMakeBase\Libraries\ITK-3.16
>
> and the build tree at
>
> X:\32Bit\VC.80\Libraries\ITK-3.16
>
> and I can see a itkConfigure.h in that folder.

I've found it, and now I get:

1>c:\users\mark\src\itktests\itktestproject\itk
libraries\code\common\itkmacro.h(42) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open
include file: 'vnl/vnl_math.h': No such file or directory

vnl_math is not found in this directory structure.

More to the point, I really have no desire to chase down ten thousand
header files to make this work; I strongly suspect that once the
vnl_math.h problem gets fixed, then there's five others waiting in the
wings.  It's not at all clear to me why it is necessary to include
math libraries just to create a blank 3D image, but setting aside my
own ignorance, is there an easy way to get what I want, ie, just
linking to some monolithic directory that has all the itk libraries?
If not, if I wrote such a thing, would it be considered at all useful
by anyone else, or just the intransigence of one guy going against the
CMake trend?

And what about those warnings?

Thanks,
Mark