Hi all,
let me introduce my finding we probably want for all KDE's CMake-based
projects eventually.
The idea is, wherever we add a source files to a project, we should also
add a headers alongside:
|add_library(my_lib [STATIC|SHARED|MODULE] [source.cpp source.h ...])
add_executable(my_exe [source.cpp source.h]) target_sources(my_target
<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [source.cpp source.h])|
That has zero impact for building the project, as the headers do not get
compiled directly,
but declaring headers in a such way helps IDEs (Qt Creator, etc.) be
aware of them and work with them properly.
For now, KWin MR
<https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/3400> exists which
adds the most essential headers, but even to fully cover KWin alone that
would probably require some sort of automation as it contains ~138
CMakeLists.txt files.
Until that automation method is not found, I hope it's OK to add the
headers manually or semi-automated
<https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/3400#note_593030>.
Hereby is the MR message with all the details:
Nowadays, it's generally recommended to add headers alongside with
sources in CMake:
note that .h header files were specified as sources too, not just
the .cpp implementation files. *Headers listed as sources don’t
get compiled directly on their own, but the effect of adding them
is for the benefit of IDE generators* like Visual Studio, Xcode,
Qt Creator, etc. This causes those headers to be listed in the
project’s file list within the IDE, even if no source file refers
to it via #include. This can make those headers easier to find
during development and potentially aid things like refactoring
functionality, etc.
https://crascit.com/2016/01/31/enhanced-source-file-handling-with-target_sources/
Recent Qt Creator depends on it heavily:
This means that the header files will get the same treatment
as the source files.
* clang-tidy and clazy will be able to analyze them
* The TODO plugin can find the TODOs in header files
* The Test plugin can find the Google Tests defined in
header files
https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-creator-6-cmake-update
In my personal observations it should also help with source/header
jumps as it sometimes doesn't work reliably otherwise.
Other IDEs should benefit too.
