[PROJ] Dropping autotools on master branch

[Howard Butler]

> On Jan 27, 2022, at 4:03 PM, Mike Taves <mwtoews at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> This is a notice to developers that are using PROJ for build scripts.
> We are about to finally drop autotools out of the master branch, so
> ensure that PROJ is built using CMake 3.9 or newer.
> 
> PROJ 9.0 will only support CMake
> (https://proj.org/community/rfc/rfc-7.html). Expect to see at least
> one release candidate in February, and a final release around 1 March.


*confetti ball*

Thanks for all of the efforts on this Mike!

As I've said when I have made pitches for CMake migration – it is the *least worse* configuration generator. None of these kinds of tools are perfect given the domain they operate in, but CMake has wide(r) adoption and decent tooling support. 

With other core projects like GEOS and GDAL also making the switch to CMake, I hope the ability for people to start contributing to these projects becomes less impeded by their once formidable build and run scenarios. CMake does make things easier for an IDE-oriented developer to be productive with these libraries with much less investment.

Howard