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I can't speak for MSVC support, but to me CMake fails all other bullet points. especially cross-platform package detection. I haven't seen anything except auto

I can't speak for MSVC support, but to me CMake fails all other bullet points. especially cross-platform package detection. I haven't seen anything except autotools get this right.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> especially cross-platform package detection I disagree here. CMake has working FindXyz modules for most major libraries. To write one of those modules is an exercise in soul-destroying tedium, but there's a pretty impressive body of existing modules out there, many of them officially bundled with CMake. When used correctly, both CMake and Autotools are capable of robust package-detection. Regarding point 1: CMake works pretty well on Unix, but it's a pity there's a runtime dependency on the CMake package. Autotools is much better in that particular regard: just about any Unix system can run a configure script, as it's just a plain old shell script. CMake certainly falls short on the final 2 points, as I rambled about at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24203172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24203172 It's too late for me to edit my earlier comment, but here's another alternative to CMake for the list: Bazel.
- tn1 6y ago
  > CMake has working FindXyz modules for most major libraries Unless you have that library installed anywhere that is not /usr/include Then you have to just hope and pray that there's some magic incantation that will make it find the right one (especially if your system-installed version is the wrong version and you'd really like to use the newer version you installed to $HOME)
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    Right, but it's always like this. If you're on Windows and you install Boost to C:\random\directory, it seems fair that CMake will require you to specify that directory manually. The alternative is to have a global database, like the Windows registry or like pkg-config (which I have to admit I don't know much about). Perhaps CMake could have better support for pkg-config, I don't know.

I can't speak for MSVC support, but to me CMake fails all other bullet points. especially cross-platform package detection. I haven't seen anything except autotools get this right.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

> especially cross-platform package detection I disagree here. CMake has working FindXyz modules for most major libraries. To write one of those modules is an exercise in soul-destroying tedium, but there's a pretty impressive body of existing modules out there, many of them officially bundled with CMake. When used correctly, both CMake and Autotools are capable of robust package-detection. Regarding point 1: CMake works pretty well on Unix, but it's a pity there's a runtime dependency on the CMake package. Autotools is much better in that particular regard: just about any Unix system can run a configure script, as it's just a plain old shell script. CMake certainly falls short on the final 2 points, as I rambled about at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24203172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24203172 It's too late for me to edit my earlier comment, but here's another alternative to CMake for the list: Bazel.

tn1 6y ago
> CMake has working FindXyz modules for most major libraries Unless you have that library installed anywhere that is not /usr/include Then you have to just hope and pray that there's some magic incantation that will make it find the right one (especially if your system-installed version is the wrong version and you'd really like to use the newer version you installed to $HOME)
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Right, but it's always like this. If you're on Windows and you install Boost to C:\random\directory, it seems fair that CMake will require you to specify that directory manually. The alternative is to have a global database, like the Windows registry or like pkg-config (which I have to admit I don't know much about). Perhaps CMake could have better support for pkg-config, I don't know.