Re: Freecell Solver's Test Suite + Conversion to CMake

On Mon, Aug 04, 2008, Shlomi Fish wrote about "Re: [hackers-il] Freecell Solver's Test Suite + Conversion to CMake":
> 1. Its files are written in a consistent high-level language, whose 
> interpreter is written in C++. This is instead of Autoconf's 
> m4-generating-Bourne-shell setup, where both m4 and /bin/sh are quirky and 
> get broken very easily.

The whole idea of Autoconf's "m4-generating-Bourne-shell setup" is that
the result (the bourne shell) can run on any computer without needing to
install anything. Therefore, whatever input language your autoconf alternative
has, generating Bourne shell from it is a *good* idea, I think...

So, if CMake doesn't generate Bourne shell, does it mean your users will
need to install it before they can compile your code? Don't you consider
this a problem?

See more on this below.

> 2. Configuration and compilation are much faster than in Autoconf, yielding a 
> faster development process.

This surprises me. Compilation speed really has nothing to do with autoconf -
CMake can't make gcc (or whatever) any speedier. And while running "configure"
for the first time isn't very quick, normally running for the second time is
indeed quick (because autoconf caches its results).

> 6. It merges in the functionality of Automake and libtool, both in a more 
> consistent and less error-prone way.

Sounds interesting. Like I said, I'm not a big automake fan, so indeed I'd
like to see a better approach .

> 9. Has native support for Win32.

What is Win32? Who uses that system anyway? :-)

> 10. Since CMake is installed separately on the system, the source pacakges are 
> smaller. I was able to reduce the size of the FCS tar.gz from over 500,000 
> bytes to slightly above 200,000 bytes.

What does this matter?
As a user, given the choice between downloading an extra 300,000 bytes
(which takes a few seconds on today's internet) and having to install an
entire package I don't have (CMake), I'd definitely prefer the first option..


-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |           Monday, Aug  4 2008, 4 Av 5768
nyh-TS7m/[email protected]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Are you still here? The message is over.
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |Shoo! Go away!