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

Subject: Re: [boost] [EXTERNAL] Request for a "Policy Review" regarding 'CMakeLists.txt'
From: Paul Fultz II (pfultz2_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-05-19 18:55:16

On Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 5:29:14 PM UTC-5, Raffi Enficiaud wrote:
>
> Le 20/05/16 à 00:09, Paul Fultz II a écrit : 
>
> > 
> > There is already library's that do this(such as hana and compute), 
>
> This is not an argument. 
>
> > so there 
> > hasn't been a technical problem with the tooling. 
>
> Nobody said there is one, people rather said there is no technical issue 
> in having your CMakeLists.txt in ./build or ./cmake or ./anyothersubdir 
> (something that you seems to omit quite often). 
>

Yes there is a technical as well as a usability issue with hiding the cmake
file in some directory. This causes problems with other tools. You will no
longer be able to install a boost library with `cget install boostorg/hana`.
Instead the user will have to manually download the repo, unpack the 
archive,
and then do `cget install hana/build`. I find that unacceptable.

Library authors who support cmake  do not want their support treated as a
second-class citizen.
 

>
> > However, we would like the 
> > wording in the guidelines to state in a more explicit manner that this 
> is 
> > acceptable in order to avoid possible future problems. 
>
> There is an *IF* missing there. 
>

Where?