I'm writing to express an opinion on the following exchange, extracted
from the CMake Digest, Vol 22, Issue 39:
> >Why does TRY_COMPILE not only compile but also try to link the code?
Actually
> >compilng only would be enough to run most tests and would also be a bit
> >faster if you avoid linking.
>Sometimes that is the only way to make sure something actually
compiles and works.
I do not deny the truth of the claim, but am strongly opposed to the lie
expressed by the choice of name. If the command is named TRY_COMPILE,
then I expect it to try to compile and no more. The current behavior is
certainly useful, but I expect it to be named TRY_COMPILE_AND_LINK. The
ability to discriminate between a failed compilation attempt and a
failed link attempt is useful, and I see no reason to avoid providing
both capabilities.
I have two more points to make, so long as I am writing:
1) I want the ability, at make time as opposed to cmake time, to compile
a file without being forced to link it or to make it part of a library.
If this ability exists today, I for one do not know how to do so.
2) With all due respect, I am disappointed that the cmake authors and
maintainers have to date refrained from making the authoritative cmake
book available online. I understand there's a new book on its way, but
I frankly hold little hope for it. The old book, in which I invested,
simply did not meet my needs at all as an introduction to cmake, and I
find it to have been largely a waste of my employer's resources to have
purchased it. While you have open-sourced the project, you have not
similarly open-sourced your book. Perhaps you feel that you will earn
more by forcing people to pay, but you are also engendering ill-will in
a fair segment of your customer base by providing expensive, bad
documentation. If it's a good book, it will sell; if it's a bad book,
it deserves not to sell. If you put it online, we'll help you improve
it; if you keep it proprietary, you get the brickbats as well as the
bouquets.
I wish you well. Best,
-- WEB
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