[Trilinos-Users] Trilinos 10 build tools preview

[James C. Sutherland]

I think that this is a great move.  CMake is really quite nice.  I am  
looking forward to trying it out in v 10.

Is the trilinos team planning on providing a FindTrilinos.cmake plugin  
for CMake?  This would be a great service to the user community who  
use CMake for their own projects that link against trilinos.  Kitware/ 
CMake is very open about third parties contributing such plugins and  
distributes them with CMake.

James


On Jul 24, 2009, at 9:28 AM, Heroux, Michael A wrote:

>
>
> The Trilinos project team is preparing for the release of Trilinos  
> 10, coming in a few months.  The purpose of this message is to  
> inform you of a significant change in the build tools we are using.
>
> We are switching from Autotools (Autoconf and Automake) to CMake.   
> The basic process of configuring and making is part of the CMake  
> approach, so it is not completely unlike the previous build system.   
> Also, we will have a large collection of sample scripts that  
> demonstrate usage on a variety of platform.  But there are many  
> differences between Autotools and Cmake that will require some  
> attention from users making the transition from Trilinos 9 to  
> Trilinos 10.
>
> The reasons for switching to CMake are many.  Autotools is becoming  
> fragile under the growing scope of Trilinos development and CMake is  
> growing in capability and popularity.  Furthermore, we want to move  
> Trilinos to the desktop and CMake provides a lot of very nice  
> capabilities to help.
>
> Some specific points worth noting are:
>
> We will continue supporting Trilinos 9 concurrently with Trilinos 10  
> for users who want to retain the Autotools build capabilities.   
> Typically when we release a new version of Trilinos, our default  
> response to a user who has a problem with an older version is to ask  
> them to upgrade to the latest version and we will resolve the  
> problem using the new version.  We will not use this approach for  
> users of Trilinos 9.
> Trilinos has pushed CMake capabilities in a few directions.  As a  
> result, Trilinos will require the latest stable CMake release, which  
> is scheduled to be released shortly before Trilinos 10.
> Do not be afraid to try Trilinos 10 and Cmake!  In general we have  
> been delighted with the new build system.  It is fast, portable and  
> very easy to use after the initial learning curve.
> In addition to a Unix command line interface CMake provides very  
> nice GUIs that display all tuning parameters.  Windows and Mac OS  
> support are very solid.
> CMake provides a very rich set of targets, which is one of the key  
> strategic reasons for switching.  CMake can build standard  
> makefiles, but in addition it can generate Microsoft Visual Studio  
> project files, Xcode project files (for the Mac) and Eclipse project  
> files.  If you are using one of these IDEs, you will be delighted  
> with CMake.
> CMake can generate binary distribution files.  With these  
> capabilities we intend to produce fully-built binaries for important  
> desktops environments like MS Windows and Mac OS.
> CMake has full support for shared libraries that is very robust.
>
> Overall, we are very excited with the move to CMake.  However, we  
> want you to be aware of the coming transition so you can plan  
> appropriately.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel  
> free to contact me directly, respond to this email list or send a  
> note to trilinos-help at software.sandia.gov.
>
> On behalf of the Trilinos project team,
>
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
> Trilinos-Users mailing list
> Trilinos-Users at software.sandia.gov
> http://software.sandia.gov/mailman/listinfo/trilinos-users

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