Re: [boost] [CMake] what to do now?

Subject: Re: [boost] [CMake] what to do now?
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-04-13 17:00:29

On 4/13/16 1:08 PM, Stephen Kelly wrote:
> boost_at_[hidden] wrote:
>
>> what to do now?
>
>   http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.build/27386
>

I found this to be interesting.  I've made a CMake directory as part of 
the serialization library which I use for building the IDE files which 
aid in library build and testing.  It can be found in the boost 
serialization module of boost. My motivation is to take a step in the 
direction whereby users desirous of using the serialization library 
could do so without having to use boost build.  I envision a user being 
able to clone the serialization subdirectory, add it "somewhere" to his 
project and have it "imported".

A big problem I found with CMake is that it has the same problem that 
all these tools have.  It's not that obvious how to use it and takes a 
lot more investment of effort than one thinks it should.  On the other 
hand, CMake is almost universal so the investment is amortized across 
all the code you import.  So I resolved to plow through it.  The result 
is my CMake cheatsheet described in the Boost Library Incubator website. 
  After biting this bullet I've found CMake to be very useful especially 
since I like to you an IDE to develop an test code.  Since the 
serializetion library is huge library with lots of tests and modules, 
it's impractical to use an IDE without such a tool such as CMake.  I 
know I'm not using CMake to the very best advantage, and I'd like to see 
more information on making a canonical CMake file for a boost library 
such as boost serialization.  Ideally, users would be able to make use 
of such a file and this would motivate library authors to include such a 
file with their libraries.

Robert Ramey