[CMake] Names of known variables

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Von: "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanevery at gmail.com>
>
>   
>> Philippe Poilbarbe wrote:
>>     
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> How can I get the names and usage of cmake variables.
>>> For functions we have the various --help options but nothing for 
>>> variables.
>>> When I bought the "Mastering CMake" book there was some of them (and
>>> it was not up to date) but it's quite difficult to find the new ones
>>> as new versions of cmake are coming.
>>>
>>> There is many answers on this list of the form: 'to do this set the
>>> value of this variable to this and it will do the trick'.
>>>       
>> Although it's not complete, 
>> http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_Useful_Variables has a number of them.  
>> I agree that documentation of variables is a weak point of CMake.
>>     
>
> So please take the time to help with the wiki page :-)
>   

Like everyone else who isn't helping with the wiki page, I have higher 
priorities right now, like getting the Chicken Scheme CMake build in top 
shape, and adopted as the standard build.  And parallel with that, I'll 
be working on OpenGL demos.  I want these evangelical tools, both for 
Chicken and for CMake, before I want better docs.  The problem with 
documentation is, once you've personally learned what you need, you have 
no incentive to improve the documentation.  If I were trying to train a 
bunch of people in CMake I'd have an incentive, but that's not currently 
what I'm trying to do.  Documentation is a weak spot of open source 
development in general.  It's easier to get things documented when 
people are getting paid to do it.

I wonder at Kitware's stake in this.  Previously, I thought they were 
just profit-conscious, that they wanted to force people to buy their 
book to get the best support.  But it seems their book doesn't have all 
needed information either, so it is not in fact the best support.  The 
best support is asking right here!  It does, at least, fit with their 
rapid development model.  I'm tempted to say that the Kitware guys are 
just much stronger coders than documentarians.  Much like their open 
source peers.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every

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