[Shorel]

Before CMake the "proper" thing were ./configure and ./automake scripts which are an atrocity from any point of view.

More than "proper", or simply "nice looking syntax" the thing I like from CMake is that a single file makes my project compile in several versions of Linux and Windows using a variety of compilers.

Any suitable replacement system should also do this.

[tom_]

+1,000. CMake may be bad in many respects, and a bit unhelpful in others, but it makes managing multi-platform projects pretty straightforward. There's not much more cruft than you'd expect, and there's convenient support for the standard tools for the major platform - and in exchange for that, I can forgive it quite a lot.

And it does actually seems to be improving over time, too, so over time I seem to have to forgive it less, even if still measurably more than not at all.

For single-platform projects it's less essential, but I think the PUBLIC/INTERFACE project settings stuff is still a draw, and its support for Ninja build files too.

[gnufx]

To me autotools have the great advantage that I can make projects using them work relatively easily if they need adjusting in one of the many things I build, and I can write the support for a new project easily. They're pragmatic, and I don't think deserve "atrocity" by any means. In contrast, cmake often causes me to throw up my hands. It's not my experience that cmake projects just work even on GNU/Linux when needing, say, to build shared libraries or install in a different sort of tree. I've used autotools quite painlessly over many years on assorted platforms including in GCC "Canadian cross" (cross-building a cross-compiler -- between GNU/Linux, SunOS, and MS-DOS originally). I did find a new level of horror in bazel when faced with building tensorflow for a different target, despite explicit instructions for a different release.

[Shorel]

You should write an article detailing your experience with both systems.

It should make for an interesting read.