Programmer Humor

Imo just use something else. If your build system is really simple just write the Makefiles yourself. If the build system tho needs to be really complex I would use something like meson or scons (Having worked on some gigantic fully GNU make build systems it can get pretty out of hand).

This is all a personal preference thing but cmake in my experience is really non intuitive and a pain to debug. I know it works for a lot of people but I definitely prefer particularly like scons since its python I have a bit easier time understanding what's happening.

If you really need to use cmake, use a debugger like another user commented. There's also a GNU make debugger in case you need to debug makefiles

I never finished reading my CMake book that weights about two kilos. It's now outdated, except for the core concepts.

sudo make me a cmake

Grab a brush and put a little cmakeup.

I’m in this photo and I don’t like it

Did you know that there is a debugger in Jetbrains CLion (and I think VS as well) that allows you to step through your CMake scripts? As ridiculous as this may seem, actually it is really useful.

Life is and will always be better writing your own Makefiles. It's literally so easy. I do not get the distaste. Cmake is arcane magic. Bazel is practically written in runes. Makefile is a just a glorified build script, but where you don't have to use a bunch of if statements to avoid building everything each time.

This was solved by moving to bazel. It's a bit more verbose and resource heavy, but the language is sane and how you structure your build code makes a lot of sense

Professional CMake: A Practical Guide by Craig Scott is an excellent guide to modern cmake usage. Well worth the $30 if you need to build, maintain, or modify a CMake project.

https://crascit.com/professional-cmake/

Thanks for the laugh.

That was also my experience, but it ended when I stopped using cmake.

I'm not mad at anyone for using cmake, but I consider myself blessed on each day that I don't have to collaborate with them (on cmake).

Which is weird, because someone will have to pry a Makefile from my cold dead hands, someday.