Re: [boost] Whatever happend to migrating to CMake?

Subject: Re: [boost] Whatever happend to migrating to CMake?
From: Stefan Seefeld (stefan_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-04-12 12:32:10

On 12.04.2016 12:09, Robert Ramey wrote:
>
> But I don't believe that the build tools have to be imposed from top
> and I don't believe that we have to exclude all other build/test
> alternatives. Each library author chooses his documentation system and
> each one chooses his test system, (Boost test, lightweight test, home
> brew, etc).  At times this is inconvenient, but it all in all it works
> pretty well.  I see no reason that library authors can't include a
> CMake directory in their libraries just as they have a build directory
> which supports boost build.  Users can select the one they want. 
> Boost build is requirement only because we want to support centralized
> monolithic testing.  Personally I would like to see us consider more
> distributed testing on an individual library basis - but that's
> another battle.

Amen to all of the above !

I would even go a step further: to me true modularization (as we have
discussed many times in the past) includes the *ability* to have a
library be able to be built (and potentially released) stand-alone,
against all its prerequisite components already installed.

I still have plans to work on that for Boost.Python (which luckily has
no runtime dependencies on Boost, making this relatively easy). I'm also
moving away from Boost.Build, as I keep having trouble setting it up for
my needs. (Note: I'm not criticizing the Boost.Build developers. I much
appreciate their work. But that alone can't be reason to use the tool.)

So, I think it would benefit all of Boost if more developers would start
thinking of Boost libraries as separate projects, who may or may not
want to share a common infrastructure for building, documenting, and
testing. It's great that those tools are available, but they mustn't be
imposed on individual projects.

Regards,
        Stefan

-- 
      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...