> On Sun, Sep 11, 2022, 10:30 Junk Trash via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I want to get the opinions of GCC developers regarding adding CMake as a >> build system for GCC. Is it something you would like, something you are >> neutral about, or something you are strongly against? >> >> Thanks for your valuable feedback! >> >> Regards, >> >> JT >> > > The high level premise of autotools is to make life harder for the build > system maintainer of a project and easier for a user. This makes sense on > several levels, including portability and familiarity. Cmake, on the other > hand, makes life somewhat easier for the build system maintainer (I > suppose) and harder for the user. This works for a pet project or something > without wide distribution, but I don't personally find it to be a good > design principle for usable and portable software. > > Autotools isn't perfect (configure steps are slow, for instance), but it's > robust, reliable, portable, and trivial for an end user.
Very well said. Distributed source tarballs are a blessing for both distros and users. Often people suggesting replacing autotools with CMake do so under the assumption these two programs do the same thing: they don't. I would very strongly oppose using CMake for building any program I contribute to, and I would certainly never use it in any program I maintain myself.
