[sldev] [VWR] Switch to cmake?

[SL - Farallon Greyskin]

I wasn't going to really get into this too much. I don;t know the 
intricacies of SLs current build system nor do I really want to :) But I 
guess I'll just say my piece and let it go at that.

I worked on cross platform projects for 6 years up till a couple years ago 
and in almost every case it became evident that the BEST way to do cross 
platform building was to have a responsible party for the make files for 
every platform and then use scripts to automate the builds from a central 
location using build servers for each platform. Since the make files and 
required library includes, build procedures, dependencies etc.  are SO VERY 
platform specific, it became a chore try to commonize them. Not a show 
stopper, but everyone was MUCH happier not doing that. It just seemed like 
busy work that led to more work than solution in the end.

Anyway that was my experience.. FWIW

Farallon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Oppenheim (Poppy)" <poppy at lindenlab.com>
To: "Phoenix" <phoenix at secondlife.com>
Cc: <sldev at lists.secondlife.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: [sldev] [VWR] Switch to cmake?


> Phoenix wrote:
>> I believe there is a fair amount of support for cmake here at linden 
>> primarily because it would simplify adding files/libraries and simplify 
>> the changes necessary during a source export.
>
> I admit to being somewhat of a rabble rouser.
>
>> If someone has cmake proficiency and can make a project definition which 
>> builds linux and makes project files for xcode and dev studio, I would 
>> take responsibility for putting it into the release trunk.
>
> This is on my Someday Maybe list, but is suddenly more relevant.
>
>> On 2007-10-11, at 23:19, Callum Lerwick wrote:
>>> This came up at the meeting, but I haven't seen any threads for it.
>>> There was talk of switching from scons to cmake. Personally I'm for
>>> it. :) The advantages would be all platforms can share the same build
>>> system, yet people can continue using MSVC and XCode the way they're
>>> used to.
>
> So, kind of.
>
> NOTE: my last experience with CMake is from 2004. Feel free to flame me if 
> what I am saying is either not true anymore, or false from the get-go.
>
> UNIX Workflow:
> 1. write cmake file
> 2. build cmake file into makefile
> 3. make
> 4. debug / test / etc
> 5. change cmake file
> 6. goto 2
>
> seems a lot like automake, so cool there.
>
> XCode / MSVS / other IDE Workflow:
> 1. write cmake file
> 2. build cmake file into IDE project file
> 3. open project, build
> 3. make
> 4. debug / test / etc
> 5. change cmake file   <--- PROBLEM
> 6. goto 2
>
> Why is step 5 a problem? Because no IDE-using coder is going to want to 
> have to go through this mess EVERY time they want to make a change to the 
> project file.
>
> This could be less of a problem because the gain from cross-platform 
> consistency is high. However, we don't seem to suck TOO bad at that now 
> (hopefully!). This also may not be a problem if good plugins have been 
> written for the corresponding IDEs that change the cmake file whenever you 
> change the project.
>
> That's where I'm at with it. Does anyone know if the workflow is less of 
> an intrusion for IDE developers these days than it has been? It's gonna be 
> a *real* hard sell unless that's not how I wrote it.
>
> + paul
>
> PS - Bill, thanks for stopping in! (yay!)
>
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