[cdt-dev] CDT CMake implementation in an IDE development

[Birendra Singh Patel <birendra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

 

First I want to thanks the very active community for the valuable contributions towards CDT.

 

I need some suggestions from community on CMake usage. Consider my experience as beginner with CMake.

 

Currently I am working on Eclipse CDT based IDE development, platform used is Eclipse Photon with CDT 9.5.2.

 

We had our legacy builder environment implemented using in Eclipse CDT extension “org.eclipse.cdt.managebuilder.core.buildDefinitions”, with our own project type, templates & tool chains.

 

Now I want to achieve CMake build in IDE for our custom project types,  so want to write few plugins and contribute on CDT CMake for Eclipse based IDE.

With Cmake: I tried two ways below:

1. CDT CMake along with another plugin “ cmake4eclipse” (thanks to Martin Weber for writing it ) which can create CMake template projects but also read CMakeLists.txt & generate build script make files automatically. But I have few problems( consider my beginner understanding)

Problem-1: In my context when we create Standard Cmake project we are not able to use our own custom tool chain here ( not sure how to do it) as less extension point in cmake4eclipse or which extension from CDT CMake to use not clear.

Problem-2: When we create our own custom Project type with custom tool chain, we are not able to use Cmake build nature, as not aware of which and how to use extension points from above.

Problem-3: Also for better User experience we thought to take all User inputs while project creation & write standard Cmakelists.txt as a template, So user can just build with defaults. But not much documentation on it or what should be the implementation approach(which CDT extensions). Overall generating Custom CMakeLists.txt with user inputs is possible.

Problem-4: Can we override Cmake4Eclipse to takes both CMakeLists.txt and some more additional inputs as property file while make file generation. Is there any extension point for this.

2. Direct use of CDT CMake to write our own plugins for Cmake based Project creation & build.

Problem: As to start don’t have much clear documentation on it, for steps to achieve it. Will be helpful for directions. Still tried to write custom Generator. But stuck at later stages.

Over all Our vision is to achieve CMake build in IDE for our custom project type ( with option for standard CMake tool chain or with our internal tool chain)

Also we want User to get less annoyed for writing CMakeLists.txt, so to generate standard template based CMakeLists.txt file with User Inputs from project creation.

 

Enough of Product vision & wish list, On grounds I will be really thankfull for suggestions on CDT CMake directions. So that we can contribute & make it better over days.

 

Thanks,

Birendra