Re: [Chicken-users] CMake build

[felix winkelmann]

On 4/19/07, Brandon J. Van Every <address@hidden> wrote:
> I'm not surprised that the CMake builds are doing better on Windows.
> But currently there's some bug on the Linux CMake build.  I'm really not
> a Linuxer and don't plan to be one.  It could be a Linux-specific CMake
> bug, or it could be that my reuse of pcre object files doesn't work as
> well on Linux as on Windows.  Either way, it's not an issue I plan to
> chase down.  Why is that...

The bug seems to be uncritical - a "make install" merely recompiles
chicken-boot (and everything that depends on it...). But it still is
annoying, of course.

> Getting my career back online is going to be difficult.  I don't see
> Chicken or CMake as part of that effort; they are the problem.  CMake, I
> know well, and I use for my own work because I'm comfortable with it.
> But nobody cares about that.  Chicken, I do not know well, and I am not
> comfortable with it.  For me, it is still a R&D technology of uncertain
> value to my personal projects.  It may yet be of use to me someday, but
> it is also clear to me that right now, it has no value at all.

Well, you have to use it to make it have value to you.

> It doesn't interface to 3D graphics and operating system capabilities any
> better than anything else,

That isn't completely true. Actually, I have not found anything that interfaces
better to such things, if you accept a very direct access to these facilities
(i.e. via an FFI).

> So... what I'm willing to do for the CMake build anymore is very
> limited.  Probably only things that are dead easy.  Chasing around weird
> Linux bugs isn't, so I won't be doing them.  The cost of whatever I do
> for the CMake build has to be pretty close to zero.  Anything that
> resembles real work, I don't have the time for anymore.

Whatever you wish to invest is happily accepted, of course.

> Where does that leave you guys?  Well, you've got a CMake build system
> that works well on Windows, seems to work fine on MacOS X, and currently
> has a bug on Linux.  At some point you have to buy into the vision of 1
> unified build system, instead of persisting with Autoconf.  It's just
> wasted effort.  If anyone actually worked substantially on CMake other
> than myself, would there be any Linux bugs?  I seriously doubt it.  I've
> given you a build system that does 97% of the job.  It's up to you to
> make it 100%.

Yes, and a fine job you did there. But CMake is hard to learn and quite
complex and there probably aren't many that could implement such a
build (as you did). But nobody will ever expect total commitment. It's your
own choice, after all Chicken is an open source project. This will mean
slower acceptance and a longer path to completeness for the CMake
build (and thus more time with autotools), but we'll get there one day.

Good luck to you, Brandon!


cheers,
felix