[GRASS-dev] Autoconf 2.13

[William Kyngesburye]

On Jan 31, 2008, at 12:00 PM, Paul Kelly wrote:

>> BTW: I followed the switch of qgis, from automake to cmake, and I  
>> think
>> it was a good success (*much* less bloody than I expected). Now
>> compilation is way smoother and faster.
>> Would it be reasonable to do the same for GRASS?
>
> ?
> GRASS doesn't use automake, so I'm not sure what you mean here. I'm  
> sure if we *were* using automake, we'd also be quite keen to move  
> away from it towards something simpler and better! IMHO the GRASS  
> build system is refreshingly simple to understand compared to other  
> projects that use complex automake, libtool etc.-based systems.  
> Again, would you be able to give a brief summary (for those  
> unfamiliar with cmake, such as myself) of what the benefits of cmake  
> over GRASS' current build system might be?
>
As an end-user compiling GRASS, cmake is yet another requirement.  I'm  
guessing that on other systems, and certainly OSX, developer tools  
don't include cmake, but do include the basic make and even  
autotools.  And as you say GRASS' build system is already relatively  
simple.  Personally, it doesn't matter (though I quietly resisted the  
Qgis transition for a while), as long as GRASS compiles.

As a (minimal) developer, I haved learned enough of the make system to  
do what I need to do.  I don't look forward to learning a new system,  
even if it turns out to be simpler.

> Regarding problems with GRASS' system - I am aware of the need to  
> simplify the platform checks in the SC_CONFIG_CFLAGS macro - see:
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2006-December/027945.html
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2006-December/027970.html
> and it would be nice to be able to use an alternative build  
> directory (not necessarily the top-level of the source), like the  
> alternative build system in 5.3/5.4 allows, but IMHO it's really not  
> that bad at present.

An out-of-source build would be nice.  Currently it's not an issue for  
me on OSX, since the Leopard linker has problem that is forcing me to  
build separately on Leopard and Tiger systems.  But when that's fixed,  
I will build both the Tiger and Leopard binaries on Leopard, and not  
having to duplicate the whole source tree for each will be nice.


-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

The equator is so long, it could encircle the earth completely once.