| > Thats only really a problem for C/C++ Even if that would be true, still every language that isn't C (or JS in the browser) needs to link or build against some C (or Fortran), which results in more or less working solutions on how to integrate with or build C sources.
Of course you may not see that (as long as it works), because somebody else has wrapped that up in a package (or whatever) for your language of choice, but somebody has to do that. > ship the dependencies with the program. My post should have been the answer to this argument: this is not possible for example when "shipping" the source for a cross-platform library. Or a cross-platform end-user program/app. Or just about anything which isn't "just" some web-backend or a server of some kind. Does that mean _you_ need a complicated (I'd call that "working for anything but the most basic stuff") build-system? No. I am a bit puzzled by this phrase: > The solution is not to ship complicated and bug infested build systems, it is to fix the dependency problem in the same way any other language has done so far But any other language than C or C++ (sadly, _way_ less than "any other") solves that by using a complicated and bug infested build system(s) and package manager(s) or a combination of both. |
Which would go away if C++ had a working package manager, that worked in the same way every other language did, was written once only and about as bug free as the compiler. This would also allow you to ship the source code for the library with a simple file that list the dependencies you need.
I guess my final issue boils down to this: CMake does too much and too little. It is too hard to get it reliably pull down the libraries I want to use and it can do too much as part of the build to the point that it becomes too complicated.
Do one thing, and do it well.