[mapguide-internals] MapGuide open source builds - Linux & Cmake

[Gabriele Monfardini]

> I agree with what you said yesterday as well -- we can make the current build link to libraries that are already installed on the system. In fact I think this should have higher priority than switching the build system to cmake, because it would remove the need to compile all the third party components, which has been a big source of compile errors for people who compile on platforms other than RedHat.

I completely agree. One of the most confusing part is to have to
compile libraries that are already on the system, usually in an
outdated version, and having to play around with path and env vars
just to use this older version. Very error prone.
In an ideal situation build syetm would complain about some missing
dependencies that should be installed using distribution repositories.
In this way third part component are always up-to-date, installed in
known paths and all tricky distribution-dependendent issues are
automatically risolved by package mantainer. This is one of the big
plus of having a central software repository, we should exploit it.

This, also IMHO, should have the highest priority if we want to favor
the adoption of Mapguide also in Linux environments.

By the way, I've compiled QGIS using cmake several times. I am by no
means a cmake expert but all worked out very smoothly. Feedback to the
user is explicative (and colorful), all dependecies are handled
correctly and, most of the times all work out-of-the-box without any
need to tweak any parameter. And this in many modern Linux
distribution.
I would like to contribute with the experience of a big and
multiplatform project that has chosen CMake over autotools
(http://lwn.net/Articles/188693/).

Gabriele