I got a comment on my CMake video that annoyed me. It claimed that, thanks to AI, anyone can be an expert now.
Oh, really? Expert, eh?
Then explain to me what your AI generated CMake build script does, line by line.
Let me make this very clear, being able to get AI to write you a CMake script, does NOT make you an expert in CMake. The same goes for programming in general. You can call yourself a vibe coding expert if you want. But that doesn’t make you an expert in whatever language your AI model is writing that code in.
An expert is “a person with a high level of knowledge or skill relating to a particular subject or activity.” Getting something to work isn’t enough. You need to know how it works.
So, to genuinely be a CMake expert, bare minimum, you need to be able to read a CMakeLists.txt build script, and know what it does. You need to know things such as: how CMake works, what a good build script looks like, and how to get CMake do everything that you need it to. Or at least, you need to know enough that you can easily figure out how to make it do what you need it to do (by hand).
Now, I’m NOT dissing AI, or using AI. Modern AI is a powerful tool, and you can do amazing things with it. However, one thing it can NOT do, is make you an instant expert. You still need to put in the time. Learn, research, practise, get really good at something. Then, and only then, are you an expert at that thing.
To become an expert at CMake, I recommend you work through my book “The CMake Tutorial.” That will get you well on the road to becoming a CMake expert. Once you’ve finished it, you’ll know what a good build script looks like, and how to write your own. From there, you just need more practise by writing your own scripts.
As a bonus, you’ll actually understand the CMake scripts that your AI chatbot writes, and know if it did a good job.