Re: [ft-devel] CMake build system: some proposed changes

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I've been looking at some CMake issues filed over at Savannah. One
> ting that pops up in a few places is that some people do not expect
> CMake to autodetect external dependencies, which can lead to
> problems when e.g. baking packages for distribution.

Having switches for all external dependencies sounds OK.  Being not a
CMake user I don't know what Joe User expects (see concerns raised by
Alexei).

> I don't have a strong opinion on this and tried to find "best
> practices" on this in the CMake world, but didn't get much of
> anything resembling, well, anything useful.  Maybe it's just the
> CMake world being as anarchic as usual.  Or maybe I didn't put in
> enough effort.

Hehe.

> My idea: implement knobs for all (?) ON/OFF options listed in
> ftoptions.h and make their default state mirror the default state in
> ftoptions.h.

This sounds like overkill.  There are many options that will never be
touched by Joe User.

> This would also mean external dependencies are off by default.

Mhmm, this doesn't sound nice.  I think that auto-detection is a good
thing.

What about making cmake emit a report after execution, similar to the
`configure' script, which also lists the cmake CLI options to switch
the corresponding features on or off?

> I will not change the default build system. The idea is that you
> configure freetype2 the "idiomatic" CMake way, instead of fiddling
> with ftoption.h yourself.

After cmake execution a hint could be printed that guides people what
to do if further tweaks are necessary.  Similarly, the options in (the
generated version of) `ftoption.h' that are controlled by cmake could
be marked as such with a comment like

  /* handled by cmake, don't change manually */

so that users are not confused.


    Werner