2010/6/27 Convey, Christian J CIV NUWC NWPT <christian.con...@navy.mil>: > I don't expect a lot of support for what I'm about to say, but I think it's > perhaps worth saying anyway... > > It seems like CMake's and CTest's have outgrown their scripting languages. > > As far as I can tell, all CMake/CTest variables are either macro formal > parameters, or variables in a > single global namespace. I think one consequence of this is that macro > invocations make their > contributions primarily by modifying variables in the global namespace. As > people discovered in the > 1970's and 1980's, the confusion caused by this approach (global variables) > can be so extensive that > it's worthwhile to change coding pracices (structured programming, etc.), and > possibly to improve > the base language as well.
I think you should dive into the Mailing List archive because there have been several valuable discussion about CMake evolution including the "replacement/extension" of CMake scripting language with "full language" like Lua or Python. > But even better would be enhancing the CMake scripting language to support > local variables in > macros, and possible package-scoped variables as well. This clarifies the > intended interface that > certain macro packages are intended to provide, because variables intended as > implementation > details would be in a namespace inaccessible to the script that invokes those > macros. CMake is offering scope from a parent/child point of view including setting variable for your parent with set(xxxx PARENT_SCOPE) this was indeed provided after lengthly ML discussion. Concerning "local variables" you should have a look at the difference between a "MACRO" and a "FUNCTION" this may already gives you part of what you want. Then as far as I can tell CMake scripting is no-where near a "must not evolve" language many improvement has been put in since I began to use CMake 2.2.x (can't remember X) even the introduction of "POLICY" which each backward compatibility. So I think you may not hope to have ALL what you require in CMake after a message on this ML be you will certainly have feedback and may be new feature if there is a consensus and some proof of concept patch provided. -- Erk Membre de l'April - « promouvoir et défendre le logiciel libre » - http://www.april.org _______________________________________________ Powered by www.kitware.com Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.cmake.org/mailman/listinfo/cmake
