Re: [Vxl-maintainers] Is it worth it to allow partial checkouts?

[Amitha P. <ami...@us...>]

I think it would be useful to allow partial checkouts.  However, I think 
it should be done properly, or not at all.  In particular, I think a 
partial checkout must be able to self-diagnose about missing pieces. 
For example, if a user checks out vnl and tries to compile vnl_algo, it 
it should emit a error if v3p_netlib is not present, and should tell the 
user that he also needs this component.  And so on.

Now, I think all of this is possible with CMake 2.6, by checking for the 
existence of targets, etc.  I think it'll be more difficult and ugly 
with CMake 2.4.

Also, I don't think there is a significant value in CDownloader: svn 
externals would probably do most of what would be required.  In 
particular, I'd create a local repository with svn external links to the 
appropriate parts of vxl.  Then, a checkout of your local repository 
would get you the partial vxl checkout that you want.  There'll still be 
a few issues with CMakeLists.txt files and such (only directories can be 
externals), but it'd probably get you most of the way.

Amitha.