Re: [boost] Boost building with CMake

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-05-16 13:02:09

on Sun May 13 2007, Eric Niebler <eric-AT-boost-consulting.com> wrote:

> Deane Yang wrote:
>> I feel great 
>> joy in being able to write with relative ease a single Jamfile that 
>> allows me to compile the same library on virtually every platform with 
>> the exact same command ("bjam"). This is saving me a *lot* of headaches.
>
> <snip>
>
> It's nice to see all the love for BBv2. When I suggested looking into a 
> CMake-based build system for Boost, I didn't mean to suggest that we 
> would orphan BBv2 or the users who have come to depend on it. There are 
> lots of build systems out there, however, and BBv2 is just one. I was 
> hoping (and still am!) that we can have a build system that integrates 
> easily into lots of build environments, BBv2 included. Personally, I 
> would like to see CMake extended so that it can generate jamfiles in 
> addition to makefiles, vcproj files, etc.. That way we would not lose 
> anything or anyone in the transition -- no user left behind. I have no 
> idea how difficult this would be, though, or if it's even possible.

The problem is that CMake would obsolete much of the configuration
logic in BBv2, and only uses its backend build system as an extremely
low-level build engine.  The Jamfiles you'd get out of it would lose
all the nice abstraction that they currently have and would become
much more like raw makefiles.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com
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