CMake Tutorial: Building Your First C++ Project & Beyond
CMake is a powerful tool for building C/C++ projects to working apps, but learning how to use it can be […]
The CMake Tutorial Finally Available in Print (Special Offer Inside)
Yes, The CMake Tutorial is finally available in paperback format. I first started writing it in 2023, so it’s been
Turns Out, My Own CMake Book Needed a Debugger
Last week I was using my own CMake book for a new project. Yes, I refer back to my own
6 Months of Testing C++ Build Systems: Here’s What You Need to Know
Six months. Countless builds. And me, stuck in a loop-doing the same thing over and over with different buils systems—so you don’t have to. Let’s figure out which C++ build system is really worth your time. I put the most popular build systems to the test—CMake, Make, Meson, Bazel, and more. Some were great, and […]
CMake vs Bazel In Practise – Real Code, Real Results
Is Bazel a good alternative to CMake, or any of the other C/C++ build systems? My answer so far has been “don’t know because I’ve never tried Bazel.” Today, I’m going to change that, and put Bazel head-to-head against CMake.Here’s how it works: I’ve got two small projects, and I’m going to build them using […]
The CMake Tutorial is Done
Yes, it’s finally done! The CMake Tutorial has taken me ages to complete, and a crazy amount of research. Now it’s finished, the “pre-release” label is gone, and its ready make you a CMake master starting now.What’s in The CMake Tutorial?So what’s in the tutorial? Everything you need to learn in order to go from […]
CMake vs Visual Studio Projects – A Real Code Comparison
CMake, or Visual Studio projects? Which is easier? Which is better? Which should you use? Lets answer those questions by building some actual codeHere’s what I’m going to do: I’ll build the same code using both build systems And, I’ll try to get both build systems to do roughly the same thing, within reasonable limits […]
CMake vs Ninja – a real-life comparison with actual code
Which build system should you use: CMake? Or Ninja? That’s actually a rather weird question, but it’s a question that gets asked all the same. So let’s answer it…For a full answer, watch the video. In brief: Ninja is designed with one goal in mind: speed. To achieve maximum build speed, they’ve traded scriptability for speed. […]
The CMake Tutorial Is Almost Done!
The second to last chapter of The CMake Tutorial is done! It’s now 93% complete, and I have to say that it’s much bigger and more comprehensive than I originally planned (179 pages of sharp, no-fluff content).That’s because I wanted to cover everything a developer would need to go from zero CMake knowledge to being […]
Hans Reacts to The Cherno Code Review (Ugly Build System)
The other day, a code review done by The Cherno caught my attention. The code’s author was a self-taught programmer who asked him to review and roast his code. And roast it he did. Actually, he roasted the build system because attempting to build the code took so much time that he never got round […]