Re: Software Building Status. A Growing Annoyance.

Nux Vomica wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:

On 25 Jun 2025 09:06:52 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
>

The CMake developers ignored requests for an equivalent to
"./configure --help" early on, willfully making the transition
difficult for software builders.

>
Actually, Cmake does have an equivalent.  Here are the steps.
>
1) Unpack a source file.
 
2) Create a "build" directory in the source root and then
"cd build."
>
3) Execute "cmake -LAH .. "
>
This will produce a LONG list of options.  (See the output
for Pan below.)
>
Automation scripts are possible with Cmake but they need
to be more complex on account of the above.
>

If looking for new software that I'll need to build myself, then
CMake is an immediate turn-off - I'll choose an alternative.

I tried cmake a couple of decades ago, and quickly decided it was
just a complex as Automake, which I was already used to.

Apparently the latest cmake is more tractable. It also
incorporated some feature requests from the Qt developers, and is
now the default build system for Qt.

My biggest project has used Automake since its inception. It's
pretty slow and has a couple of features that annoy me (e.g. those
damn Makefile.in files and differences in autoconf version between
systems.)

That same project also has a qmake setup, which I started when
debugging on one system with the automake build didn't work.  The
"benefit" of qmake is that the project builds on Windows as well.

For my newest projects (various libraries and their test apps)
I use Meson.  Significant learning curve, but it is fast and
can also download and build dependencies from git subprojects.

Years ago I looked into bjam and liked it, but it fell down when
trying to build Doxygen output.

<snip>

--
If we won't stand together, we don't stand a chance.