Re: [Libmesh-devel] Still Really Dislike Automake

[Derek G. <fri...@gm...>]

On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 11:54 AM Roy Stogner <roy...@ic...>
wrote:

>
> On Thu, 30 Aug 2018, Derek Gaston wrote:
>
> Should we put one magic add_files.sh at the top level?
>

I guess?  I still don't understand why these are even necessary - there
should just be a build rule for the symlinks!


> Except... if you're going full Focus on creating a new build system,
> presumably you'd want to put it in MOOSE too...
>

It already _is_ in MOOSE.  Our build system is pretty awesome.  Now:
libMesh doesn't need that level of complexity (we have added complexity for
the cascading build capability that doesn't need to be in libMesh) - but
the basic ideas are already there.  We even have stuff that I have no idea
how you would do with Automake like Unity Builds.


> And I'd really love to be able to do out-of-source builds in MOOSE
> too.  If "autoderek" handled that (plus "make install"; I don't care
> as much about dist/distcheck) it would be totally worth the switch
> from my point of view.  You'd still have to convince others though.
>

This is where we start to have a problem because I just seriously don't see
compelling enough reasons for out of tree builds.  It adds a layer of
complexity that is annoying - and it's not really compatible with any
"in-editor" building (like using Emacs) making it pretty not useful for
development.  On the other end, users don't need it at all because they are
usually just happy to get something to build for _one_ environment
configuration (and many never, ever want to rebuild after that).  I
seriously think it's just not worth it.

Now, "install" I can see a need for.  I don't personally care about it -
but the arguments are convincing enough.  It's something that both
developers and users might want to use.

In my mind "install" also obviates a lot of the need for out-of-tree
builds: if you need multiple configurations built - just install them to
different places.

If out-of-tree-builds are a requirement: I would like them off by default.

Derek