Re: [boost] Request for a "Policy Review" regarding 'CMakeLists.txt'

Subject: Re: [boost] Request for a "Policy Review" regarding 'CMakeLists.txt'
From: Peter Dimov (lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-05-17 17:31:14

Raffi Enficiaud wrote:
> Le 17/05/16 à 20:08, Andrey Semashev a écrit :
> > On Tuesday, 17 May 2016 21:08:01 MSK Paul Fultz II wrote:
...
> >> Something like this:
> >>
> >> git clone git_at_[hidden]:boostorg/hana.git
> >> mkdir build && cd build
> >> cmake ../hana/
> >
> > And why is it a problem to type this instead:
> >
> > cmake ../hana/build
> >
> > ?
>
> +1
>
> The nice thing on eg. GitHub is that it interprets and shows the 
> README.txt/README.md.

The reason Paul would rather have CMakeLists.txt at the root is because this 
is where his tool expects to find it, which expectation is correct by 
convention in the majority of the (non-Boost) cases. Tools obviously don't 
read README files.

Of course, it's not hard at all for a tool to be made to look for 
CMakeLists.txt at various predetermined locations such as .;./cmake;./build. 
In fact, ./cmake would probably be a better place than ./build, because some 
libraries seem to already use it.