[xorg] Re: CMake (was More about x-packages)

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2007-12-22 09:50-0000 José Fonseca wrote:

> I also have good experiences with CMake, but there is one other
> disadvantage comparing with libtool: lack of support for convenience
> libraries. This makes the creation of large SO modules which shared code
> (e.g. a DRI driver) painful if not unfeasible without writing custom and
> likely non-portable CMake macros.
>
> See the "Autoconf support for Mesa" thread on mesa3d-dev ML:
>
>  http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=fjgkbm%24mc6%
> 241%40ger.gmane.org
>
> and
>  http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/
> CMake_FAQ#Does_CMake_support_.22convenience.22_libraries.3F

Actually, I think you can state it stronger than that. If you insist on
"convenience" libraries (unorganized collections of compiled objects that
are not a real library), then CMake is not for you since from discussions on
this subject on the CMake mailing list the CMake developers feel that
convenience libraries are a build-system crutch that they do not want to
support, and I agree with their stand on this.

Analysis of the X specifics may indicate an obvious way to avoid using this
crutch. For example, if large SO modules share extensive code as indicated
above, isn't that a strong indication that you should make a real library
out of that shared code?  Real libraries are stongly supported by CMake
without any need for recompilation, and the end result is a lot easier to
understand and maintain in my opinion.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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