[Qt5-feedback] Build system requirements for Qt5

[Oswald Buddenhagen]

On 06/09/11 01:08, ext Craig.Scott at csiro.au wrote:
> Rather than looking for a build system where an IDE can manipulate
> the project file directly (eg .pro, CMakeLists.txt, etc.), is there
> any merit to defining an API or command line interface which an IDE
> can hook into and then it is up to the underlying build tool to
> support that interface? For example, an IDE would query the interface
> to get details about what's in the project.
>
while the idea is nice, realistically there is little chance to agree on 
such an interface. you can either make it extremely flexible and allow 
for a lot of functionality being optional (so that the less capable 
build tools can support it), or you restrict it to a common denominator 
(which limits your functionality and slows down development). language 
bindings are another problem (and command line apis just won't cut it).

so what we have instead are IDE-specific build tool support plugins. 
nothing speaks against the tools providing the plugins themselves. of 
course this requires more total effort, but from a competitive POV it 
makes a lot of sense.