[maccard]

> You missed the point. "__CLASSIC_C__" is not a thing (why they don't use __STDC__?

I dont know, I'm not going to defend it. Imnot going to do a line by line review of the file you picked, as I said I'm sure I can find awful code in bazel, meson, etc.

> Also, I have been told that cmake-generated Makefiles invoke cmake itself, so you can't really generate portable Makefiles with it.

Cmake generates a target for makefile that will re run cmake if your cmake file changes. If you're bukldong with cmake, you distribute the cmakelists txt, and treat the makefiles, ninja files etc as build intermediates

> In addition to that, I have been told that cmake takes ages to compile.

Do you compile your own make regularly? I've compiled cmake once or twice and it's not quick, but it's definitely doable (maybe 5 or so minutes?)

> I find that much better honestly.

The reason to use a build tool is to avoid hacks like that in user code. I would rather have cmake or meson or whatever my meta build tool is handle and test that logic, so I can focus on my library or application code.

[h_anna_h]

> as I said I'm sure I can find awful code in bazel, meson, etc.

Oh, you have proof that person X murdered someone? I am sure I can find awful stuff that person Y and Z did!

[back in 2014] OpenSSL has heartbleed? Well, I am sure that I can find issues in libsodium if I looked.

> Do you compile your own make regularly?

No, my users however might need to once they have to deal with a cmake project.

> but it's definitely doable (maybe 5 or so minutes?)

I was told that it takes hours, though I might be misremembering.

> so I can focus on my library or application code.

This kind of thing does not really distract you from anything. Adding something like that takes as long as it does to add a cmake check. Then the person who is compiling has to do -DENABLE_FEATURE=1.

[maccard]

> Oh, you have proof that person X murdered someone? I am sure I can find awful stuff that person Y and Z did!

No - that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that if you're holding X to a standard, you should hold Y and Z to the same standard.

> No, my users however might need to once they have to deal with a cmake project.

cmake is available from the package manager on basically every system imaginable, or as a binary (or source) download for a whole host of platforms. It's also widely used, so chances are a user is going to have it installed.

> I was told that it takes hours, though I might be misremembering.

If you're going to dogmatically claim that cmake is inferior, then you should at least verify the grounds of your claims are true. I ran

    git clone https://github.com/Kitware/CMake.git && cd cmake && cmake -H. -Bbuild && cmake --build build

in under 90 seconds. Might have even been faster if I used ninja. I actually don't konw how to compile make from source on windows. I had a look, and apparently I need to ftp the source from a gnu mirror?

> This kind of thing does not really distract you from anything. Adding something like that takes as long as it does to add a cmake check. Then the person who is compiling has to do -DENABLE_FEATURE=1.

This isn't unique to cmake but a meta build system does more than just let you add defines.