getting involved

[Alexander Neundorf]

Hi Giorgos,

great to have you here :-)

Below is a list of things which need to be done right now. I hope it isn't too 
short ;-)

On Wednesday 27 July 2011, Giorgos Tsiapaliwkas wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to contribute to the build system of KDE.I have zero
> knowledge from bash/packaging.I only know how to use some basic stuff
> from the cmake.
> 
> Right now i am helping in the development of the plasmate project.
> 
> If someone is able to mentor me please let me know.

There are multiple things which need to be done right now.

Related to the stronger modularization from kdelibs to KDE frameworks and the 
switch from svn to git there are two projects which need work right now.
This was mostly initiated at the KDE Platform 11 sprint in Randa:
http://community.kde.org/KDE_Core/Platform_11/Buildsystem

One is extra-cmake-modules:
https://projects.kde.org/projects/kdesupport/extra-cmake-modules
http://blogs.kde.org/node/4447

Basically the TODO list for this is here:
http://community.kde.org/KDE_Core/Platform_11/Buildsystem/FindFilesSurvey

In section "2 Check*.cmake files" and "3 Generic Macros" there are several 
files with the status "Need feedback":

* CheckPointerMember.cmake :
  - where is it used in all of KDE SC (and maybe also extragear and koffice) ?
  - can you write a small testcase which shows that this can't be done with
    CheckStructHasMember.cmake, which comes with cmake ?

* CheckPrototypeExists.cmake
  - where is it used (as above) ?
  - how does it differ exactly from CheckSymbolExists.cmake ?

* CheckStructMember.cmake
  - where is it used ?
  - in the places where it is used, is it necessary that a C++ compiler is 
used for the checking or would the CheckStructHasMember.cmake from CMake also 
work ?

* MacroEnsureVersion.cmake
  - where is it used ?
  - how does it differ exactly from if ( ... VERSION_LESS ... ) from CMake ?

* MacroAppendIf.cmake
* MacroBoolTo01.cmake
  - where are they used ?


And for the Find-modules which also exist in CMake:

* FindBoost.cmake:
  - Does it have anything which the one coming with cmake 2.8.5 doesn't have ?

* FindOpenSSL.cmake:
  - How does it differ from the one coming with cmake 2.8.5 ?
  - Is there stuff in it which should be merged into the cmake one ?

and basically the same for all find-modules which don't have a name attached 
to them in this section.
The find-modules in the other sections are not so urgent right now. I'm trying 
to get all the find-modules we have in kdelibs and which also exist in cmake 
merged/synced with cmake until end of August so it will be in CMake 2.8.6 and 
we can get rid of our copies then.

Beside this actual "work", we need also somebody who will help with making 
releases of the extra-cmake-modules package, writing announcements, etc.


If you are more looking for a C++ coding work, we need somebody to work on 
integrating automoc into cmake. In Randa Gregory ported it already away from 
Qt to plain STL (in the no-qt branch). Now this needs to be integrated in 
cmake. This is some serious work to do.

Alex