Fwd: A proposal for a modern build-system

From: Daniele Lupo (jepessen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-03-25 14:37:54

On 23/03/2024 13:16, Hassan Sajjad wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Could you please confirm if my proposal is under consideration? If so, 
> when can I expect an update regarding its status?
>
>
Sorry for the delay, I had personal issues during those days.

I've read the thread, and since now I can't see any serious issue or 
problem that make me think that the actual build system must be 
replaced. Maybe updated, but not replaced.

For explaining more in detail my point of view (that, I will not ever 
repeat too many times, it's my personal one, so other people can have 
other ideas about it):

- Boost does not pay people (as far as I know). You're asking for 
compensation in the first message, but nodoby will pay it, and nodoby 
asked for it.
- I agree with others that three month of development are a bit too 
optimistic, and also in this case we must maintain two different build 
systems instead that one.
- In the thread I've read many messages like "b2 can do this", "well, 
also hmake", but no messages like "hmake can do it and b2 it's not able 
to do it" "oh really? I'd love to have it!". I don't see any important 
use case that's requested by the community and that hmake will provide 
while b2 not. So the community wil use hmake to do the same things that 
at the moment it does with b2.
- There's already another build system, even if not much official, and 
that's cmake. It works well and it's widely used, and that's supported 
by many package managers, like vcpkg. I have to say that hmake will not 
be used by them, so it will be limited to the scope of build boost like 
b2 actually does. Even in this case, it does not add anything.

Basically, in the entire thread, in my opinion, there's not a single 
point that le me think that hmake will make the like easier to boost 
community. At most we'll have another tool that make the same things. 
And, repeating myself, I can see that new features actually not 
supported by b2, pratically modules, are easier to be implemented in b2 
instead of using another build system and obligate the entire community 
to learn another tool for a feature that for now only a few of them will 
use. In addition to this, I strongly think that instead of a new build 
system I'll spend some effort, if necessary, in improving existing 
alternatives, like cmake, that are already widely used by the developer 
community around the world.

Regards

Daniele Lupo