[Bf-committers] to make or not to make

[Rene Dudfield]

 --- "Ryan C. Stallings (beergeek)"
<blender@beergeek.net> wrote: > Priority #1 is getting
the build system put in
> place.  The cmake discussions 
> seem to have stagnated, I thought I would recap
> where we stand and what are 
> the pros/cons of the situation.  Then I vote that we
> make a decision and move 
> along.
> 

Perhaps we need to cmakify blender in order for people
to make a decision?  Although the work you did
previously should give them enough of a taste :)



> cmake pros:
> -Works on all the platforms we use
> -Open source so it can be distributed freely and/or
> modified if needed
> -Allows parallel building (build/object files in a
> different directory from 
> the source)
> -simple to use.  not as complex as full
> makefiles/autoconf (which means not as 
> powerful)
> 
> cmake cons (and possible solutions)
> -Another tool to throw in the mix.
>   -we could provide nightly snapshots with the
> makefiles/project files      
>   pre-generated
> -Uses absolute paths in the build files
>    - we could write a script that goes through the
> make files and subs the   
>    absolute path for the relative one
> -It might not be powerful enough to do everything we
> want/need
>   -It may be possible to expand cmake to do what we
> need
> -its not the "standard" way to compile on any
> platform
> -Chris Want reported of a negative experience using
> cmake.
>   -I tried compiling vtk on both Windows and OSX and
> did not have any 
> problems.  
> 

Unlike automake cmake requires very few dependencies. 
eg automake requires perl!

Another disadvantage of autoconf/automake is that it
is *slow*.  It takes almost an hour on my
cygwin/win98/p166mmx 64MB ram box just to do the
configure!  In the same amount of time I can get a
decent way through a full compile of larger
libraries(crystal space).


After tangling with the autotools for the last few
days, I can say I don't like it.  I would prefer
cmake, or the current makefiles because of speed.




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