Current status

• 8 build systems
  • XCode -> Mac
  • VCProj -> Win, WinCairo
  • CMake -> WinCE, EFL
  • QMake -> Qt
  • MakeFile -> Gtk
  • GYP -> Chromium
  • Android.mk -> Android
  • wx
• Some of them requiring a special IDE to add a file
• Adding and removing a file is more and more expensive which hinders refactoring the code
• As an example, someone removed some empty files lately that were in the tree for years, presumably because of the barrier to removing files
• Potential unifying systems: CMake, GYP and QMake were mentioned

GYP

• Constraint: people use whatever IDE they currently use (XCode, Visual Studio)
• CMake vs GYP (​http://code.google.com/p/gyp/wiki/GypVsCMake)
• GYP keeps the look'n'feel of the native build system
  • For example, it is easy to map from GYP to the native system and vice-versa
  • There is currently no tool to propagate native changes back to GYP though

CMake

• Used by several projects
• However CMake generated files calls back CMake which made some of the Apple people sad

The current implementation

• We had a look at some of the GYP files
• The current way is sub-optimal as it uses a lot of arcane 'exclude' (this gave rise to a lot of comments)
• We would need to refactor the way it is done for people to be fine with such a change
• A one GYP per platform was mentioned (and using some include mechanism)

Constraints on the build system files

• Adding/Removing a file is a rare operation whereas checking out the source is common
• Thus we should not put a burden on the most common operation
• There was a discussion about adding the XCode files as we don't want to add another step
• Also this would introduce some issues with Apple internal build system
• The tools to generate the native build system should either use XCode or a Makefile on Mac

Workflow

• If we check-in the build files, we have issues with people just doing 'svn up' and building using make or native method
• There is a cost with this switch and we need to solve them before making the big switch

Other ports

• Qt and Gtk have their own build integration constraint that needs to be captured
• CMake is used an 'include' system and not an 'exclude' system