[boost] Re: IDE projects/extensions to support Boost.Build

From: Andrey Melnikov (melnikov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-27 13:10:33

Reece Dunn wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:

> What is really needed is a project-generation toolset so you could do 
> something like:
> 
>   bjam release debug msvc-project-7.1
>   bjam release eclipse-3.0 # release only project files
> 
> And you end up with the requested project/solution files. I will have a 
> go at writing such a toolset.

Is it really needed? Earlier in the street Reece proposed two 
*alternative* solutions:

*  conversion tool to convert to your favorite IDE format;
*  hook-ins to allow BBv2 projects to be managed in your favorite IDE.

I think the second alternative is better. For example these hook-ins 
(Boost.Build project type in case of MSVC7+) will make implementation of 
  "project creation wizards to create BBv2 projects" possible.

For what do we need these IDE projects? I think the only purpose is to 
make it easier to work on Boost libraries. It's much easier for those 
who are used to IDE to press F7 than "up + enter" or "up + up + enter" 
in case of CLI. Also you don't have to leave text editor to run, can 
easily invoke debugger etc.

But to make all these things possible in MSVC we don't need neither to 
hook-up in IDE, nor to generate rather complex .vcproj files.

Besides .vcproj complexity, having the same information duplicated in 
both Jamfile and vcproj is a bad thing because synchronizing them will 
be a pain which boost developers don't deserve.

We can generate MSVC "make" projects instead, which are much simpler 
than both full-flebecause they only need a couple of lines to invoke 
bjam.exe.

MSVC will even parse bjam output to show compilation errors in Tasks window.

What do you think?

Andrey

P.S. Can anyone look at BCB/CW extension capabilities and find the 
easiest way to get them supporting Boost.Build projects?