[boost] Moving CMake forward

Subject: [boost] Moving CMake forward
From: John Maddock (jz.maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-07-22 09:07:39

Man but there's been a lot of hot air expanded on this subject.... guys 
if we're going to do this, just do it.  We're empiricists around here: 
lets see what the proponents of CMake can come up with, yes I know there 
are straw man proposals, but I want something that demonstrates it can 
fully handle the complex cases at least as well as Boost.Build, and be 
maintainable by CMake ignorants like myself, because lets face it, once 
the transition is over, library authors will have to do the maintenance 
grunt work as before: and if we can't easily see how to do that, then 
the project probably fails.

As a minimal first step, what I would like to see come up for review 
(yes a review folks!) is a system that:

* Provides users with a way to build those libraries with source via 
CMake.  All of them together, or just some subset.

* Provides an install option for all of Boost.

* Is trivially easy for non-CMakers like myself to maintain. 
Documentation should be provided (Boost/CMake best practice is...).

* Is fully compatible with current auto-linking naming on Windows (plus 
whatever else comes along later like address-model and architecture name 
mangling that's in the works and has long been requested).

* Supports libraries with non-trivial build requirements (regex, locale, 
what others?).

* Is usable by end users to be able to easily reference Boost libraries 
from their own CMake projects (note, might be limited to libraries with 
source, since header only libraries are kind of trivial).  An example, 
and how to documentation should be provided.

* It would be nice if generated VS projects were reference-able from our 
own solutions as well, but I accept that may not be possible.

* Is at a minimum, no worse than what we have now.

What else?

Takers?

BTW, I don't see a need for this to encompass every Boost library with 
source before some kind of mini-review to iron out the warts...

Just hoping to move things along, John.

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