Anybody using a cross platform build system?

Esemwy · January 2018

I do most of my development on macOS, so consequently, I know Xcode much better than Visual Studio. I end up spending a lot of time rejiggering the build when I move my work to Windows. Is anybody using CMake or SCons or any of the other cross-platform systems and perhaps willing to share some tips and tricks? Integration with the Studio version of Qt seems to be my major sticking point.

Daywalker Designs · February 2018

I will admit to being old fashioned and say my cross-platform build tool of preference is GNU Autoconf and friends.

Esemwy · February 2018

Daywalker Designs said:
I will admit to being old fashioned and say my cross-platform build tool of preference is GNU Autoconf and friends.

The Autoconf tools give me flashbacks to configuring sendmail. It uses the m4 macro language just like sendmailconfig. If you have an example that will build plugins for Windows and MacOS, though, I’m more than willing to give it a shot.

jag11 · February 2018

I'm interested too.

BTW, have you tried Visual Studio for MacOS?, you can create apps for Android, iOS and MacOS, not sure about Windows target, but the Community version it's free.

Daywalker Designs · February 2018

MacOS version doesn't support development of a Windows application, but should otherwise be compatible.

Esemwy · February 2018

jag11 said:

I'm interested too.

BTW, have you tried Visual Studio for MacOS?, you can create apps for Android, iOS and MacOS, not sure about Windows target, but the Community version it's free.

Ehhhh...? I might give it a look, but Studio is basically my problem. I can build plugins for MacOS, but Studio gives me fits. It also looks like C++ isn’t a first class citizen for VS on Mac. The instructions in the SDK are out of date, so it makes building plugins for Windows difficult (for me).

Totte · May 2018

I will probably sit in your boat soon Esemwy as I too develop on Mac but will one day need to compile and test under windows too...

/ Totte

Esemwy · May 2018

Totte said:

I will probably sit in your boat soon Esemwy as I too develop on Mac but will one day need to compile and test under windows too...

I’ve heard the folks at Pret-a-3d (Reality) use CMake successfully. I ran into issues, though, with trying to make it discover the Qt libraries. It depends on qmake to do the heavy lifting, and Daz doesn’t include it with the SDK. SCons is tempting because it’s in Python, which I know quit well, but the documentation is lacking when it comes to working with OS X (especially libraries). Nobody who actually works on plugins wants to share their “secret sauce.” I think if we want to get something working, we’re on our own.