[cairo] CMake

[Jason G]

>
>  You should be joking.  Hardcoding dependency directories in your build
>  script is an advantage?  Really?  And you can't do that with
>  autotools?
>
>  --
>
>
> behdad
>  http://behdad.org/
>
>  "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
>   Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
>         -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
>
>

I failed to completely explain how cmake works w.r.t. dependency directories:

When you run cmake, it will use either curses or MFC (there might be a
gtk version too, not sure), to prompt the user with a list of options.
 The cmake programmer can put default options, but the user can
_easily_ change them, and they also provide the ability to put
detailed descriptions on each options and to specify a type (so, for
example, if it is a file type, you can get tab completition and/or a
"browse files" dialog when you go to edit that option.

Although autotools does not support MSVC, you can always compile with
mingw and then create windows libraries/binaries that way, so I will
go out on a limb and say that cmake is not more powerful than
autotools (i.e., there's nothing you can do with cmake that you can't
do with autotools).  I apologize if my last e-mail came off with that
tone.

The key to cmake is that the user often does not have to mess with
environment variables or edit coniguration scripts to customize the
build to their liking.  Why should I have to run ./configure --help or
edit the configuration files just to find the switch that sets an
option or a path?  Why should a person using codeblocks visual studio
on windows have to install msys or cygwin to build and run cairo?  I
believe that cmake lowers the knowledge barrier of entry to using open
source software.

-- 
Jason G