[Insight-users] Re: Multiple binary builds : CMake vs Unix shell .rc

[Luis Ibanez]

Hi Neil,

This multiple setup is common in Unix platforms,
in particular when you have a home directory in
a shared disk and you can login into the system
from different workstations.

It can be pretty nice if your shell .rc script
is correctly setup... but can rapidly get a
nightmire if it is not.

This relies on correctly setting up several
environment variables and counting on finding
system software in well defined places when you
log in from different platforms.

Storing the Makefiles with the source code
assumes that all the dependencies can be generic.
In other words, they have been factorized for
all platforms. This is not alway easy to do,
in particular when not all the support libraries
are available in all platforms.

The current structure of CMake reproduce the
spirit of this Unix traditional setup without
the drawback. The CMakeLists.txt are the new
'Makefiles' that are stored with the source code.
The CMakeLists.txt files are as close as you can
get to platform-independent configuration.

CMake will generate actual Makefiles from them
when you configure and provide information about
the structure of your platform.

Maybe I'm missing something, I don't see any
advantage in this traditional Unix configuration
with respect to what CMake allows you to do.

CMake is much more flexible and well structured.
You can maintain multiple binary builds without
having to contaminate the source code with
information that is particular to one platform
or the other.


If you find a particular functionality that you
consider fundamental and seem to be missing in
CMake please let us know and we will be happy to
find a way to provide it in a future release.



    Thanks


       Luis



-------------------------------------------------

Neil Killeen wrote:

> 
> please see my message
> 
> of Tue, 17 Dec 2002 14:45:45 +1100 (EST)  on the 'Using ITK Externally' thread.
> 
> http://www.itk.org/pipermail/insight-users/2002-December/001936.html
> 
> 
> The section at the end on building multiple platforms from the source
> is the bit.  It is about the philosophy of who has the
> knowledge of the binary platform you are building,
> and where the builder positions him/herself in the tree.
> 
> cheers
> Neil
> 
> 
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