Re: [Boost-cmake] Analysis of the current CMake system

Subject: Re: [Boost-cmake] Analysis of the current CMake system
From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-03 16:02:55

on Tue Mar 03 2009, Brad King <brad.king-AT-kitware.com> wrote:

> Brad King wrote:
>> The current CDash release will not understand CTest build submissions that
>> use this launcher interface, so one would need CDash from its SVN trunk to
>> try it.
>
> Sandia's Trilinos project is using CTest launchers with CDash from SVN trunk.
> Here is an example page showing errors recorded by the launcher mode:
>
>   http://trilinos-dev.sandia.gov/cdash/viewBuildError.php?buildid=927
>
> We're still tweaking the layout if you have suggestions.

It definitely delivers the important basics.  I could spin a nice
wishlist for you, but it looks OK.

> Another new feature in CTest/CDash development heads which may be of interest
> to Boost is support for subproject labeling. See their main dashboard page here:
>
>   http://trilinos-dev.sandia.gov/cdash/index.php?project=Trilinos&date=2009-02-27

Functionally, it's pretty darned good.  

Room for improvement:

* I think we'd want a view that's limited to issues, so a subproject
  doesn't show up if it's all green (or has only warnings, configurable
  according to project).  See
  http://www.boost.org/development/tests/trunk/developer/issues.html

* It doesn't make good use of space in my browser window unless I make
  the browser really narrow.  It would take some design work, but it
  would be good to be able to get a bigger picture view at a glance,
  especially when the browser window is large.

* It's kinda ugly, but I suppose we can tweak the CSS ourselves.

* It should use JavaScript to allow drilling down without rebuilding the
  whole screen, ala https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/browser

> Trilinos is a very large project, so they label pieces of it in CMake,
> CTest propagates the labels with failure reports, and CDash interprets
> the labels to break results down by subproject.  The same thing could
> be used for Boost's library hierarchy.

Awesome.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com