[osg-submissions] DLL placement on Windows

[Robert Osfield]

Hi Brede,

On 8/25/07, Brede Johansen <bredej at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't disagree with the use of cmake or other such tools.  If we
> could fully automate the generation of VisualStudio files then make
> those files available in Subversion or in a separate zip file.  This
> should give the best of both worlds.

It wouldn't quite be the best of both worlds...

CMake customizes the build to your systems according to the
dependencies it finds/you set and how you configure it, including
issue like 32 bit vs 64bit, VS6 vs VS7 vs VS8 project files.  If you
don't need examples or wrappers then CMake would generate the build
system accordingly.

If you have a fixed build then you are stuck making assumptions and
therefore restrictions of how users can build the OSG and where they
have to put all the dependencies, and you also end up with lots of
projects generated that you don't need, and projects that are broken
because you don't have all the dependencies.

> > I don't think it *is* optional... I'm no CMake expert, but I use it
> > for some of my own projects and I didn't even do anything special and
> > there are BUILD_ALL and INSTALL projects. I'll have to defer to
> > someone more familiar to CMake than I am for an answer here, but I
> > think that also comes with the territory.
>
> I'm not familiar with cmake myself so I appreciate the work you and
> others do to improve the build system.

I would certainly like to see the build system work better out of the
box in the way that users typically work on their platforms in
question.  I can't say how close we might be able to get to this on
all platforms, and have to rely on users/contributors on each of the
major platforms.  We are also reliant on users engaging on issue like
the build system, otherwise their needs won't be met as we won't know
about them.

As general note, CMake is very powerful once you start getting used to
it, while it does take a little investment in time but its well worth
it.  You might just find yourself hooked as well, and advocating that
you port across to using CMake at work :-)

Robert.