[embed-cdt-dev] RFC: Proposal for a new Eclipse xPack builder

[Liviu Ionescu <ilg@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Following the discussions on the cdt-dev list, I would like to submit a request for comments regarding a new builder to be added to the project.

As you might know, in addition to the Eclipse Embedded CDT plug-ins I also manage the xPack project (a modular solution to manage dependencies and builds), and the µOS++ project (a C++ framework that includes several POSIX inspired layers and an RTOS).

The current plan for the modular xPack technology is to support 3 build generators, CMake, meson and my own xpbuild (the xPack Basic Builder).

To simplify things, I plan for a single build plug-in to support all of them, which in fact are more similar than different, and allow the user to switch from one to the other at any time, by some changes in the Settings page, and even use different generators for different build configurations.

All 3 build generators create the compile_commands.json file, thus no need to parse any console output, all 3 builders create multiple build folders below a common `build` folder, all three have similar workflows, as a serie of actions like prepare/setup, build, clean, etc.

One major difference is that while for CMake/meson you have to manually edit some custom scripting files, xpbuild stores its configuration in a json file, which can be managed via a UI, similar to the current MBS settings pages.


Apart from the UI pages for editing the json, the rest of the functionality is not that complicated, it only needs a way to define the build configurations and the associated actions, plus a way to feed the indexer.


Any feedback will be appreciated.


Regards,

Liviu