Description

I also need to learn further about CMake in order to write the tutorial.

• Other tutorials or books:
  • CMake Tutorial
    • Learn more about usage requirements.
    • "Step 9: Selecting Static or Shared Libraries" needs a re-write.
    • "Step 10: Adding Generator Expressions" does not explain the topic well.
  • [MUC++] Daniel Pfeifer - "Effective CMake"
  • It's Time To Do CMake Right
  • An Introduction to Modern CMake
  • More Modern CMake
  • Mastering CMake
  • Learning CMake
  • CMake Cookbook
  • CMake community
  • CMake discourse forum
  • CMake: Best Practices
• Existing work:
  • CMake BASIS
• Specific topics:
  • Understanding a CMake project.
  • Export / import
  • The purpose of PRIVATE, INTERFACE, and PUBLIC.
  • Usage requirement
  • Build system or build system generator.
  • The purpose of generator expressions.
  • Variables
  • Build configuration (debug vs release).
  • CMake functions
  • cmake-language(7)
  • How to find a library?
    • How to package a library for other use
  • Review add_executable:
    • Normal Executables
    • Imported Executables
    • Alias Executables
• Review add_library: there are more than three library tpes. Totally, there are:
  • Normal Libraries: STATIC, SHARED, MODULE
  • Object Libraries
  • Interface Libraries
  • Imported Libraries
  • Alias Libraries
• Other related topics
  • What is the pkg-config tool?
  • What are the .config files provided by the third-party modules?
  • What is cross-compiling?
• Finish writing the tutorial:
  • Mention that an important thing to learn about CMake is to know what properties a command affects. (This is related with OOP.)
  • Debugging tips (i.e., debugging into the CMake modules).
  • The common pitfalls.

Description

This issue tracks my ideas of how to deliver the content in a more concise and clear way.

As of today (2023-05-21), I think a better way of organizing the topics is:

• Use a few sections to help the readers see the big picture, so when they have a question, they know where they are and can find the related topics.

• Help the readers know how to understand CMake. See T1 below.

• CMake is big, so I should not try to cover everything in one sitting. Instead, I need to go iterations:

  • In the first iteration, I should just build a simple executable program without static or dynamic libraries. But this example includes not only the core building part, but also the related parts of the whole lifecycle, including:
    • Building Debug and Release.
    • Testing
    • Installing
    • Packaging and distributing
  • In the future iterations, I should gradually cover the more detailed topics, such as:
    • Build static/dynamic libraries.
    • Generator expressions
    • Export configuration.

• T1. Add chapter "Introduction: How to Understand CMake"

  • Software engineering is always a mixed effort.
  • Need to understand the build process.
  • Need to know what problems a build process may encounter.
  • Understand target and properties.
  • Understand various parts of CMake: it's a build tool, but also a programming language.
  • Know "modern CMake".

• T2. Move the current chapters about target and properties into the section "Targets and Properties: Center of the Stage".

• T3. Mention "Imported target" and "Alias target".

• T4: Iteration one: Build the core part:

  • T4.1: Write about the goal:
    • 1). Build a debug version of the code for testing.
    • 2). Build a release version of the code for distributing.
  • T4.2: Explain "targets" and "properties".
  • T4.3: Explain Debug and Release.
  • T4.4: Explain how to run tests and use the test dashboard.
  • T4.5: Explain how to packaging and distributing.
  • T4.6: Explain how to installing.

(To be continued.)