Re: Feature request: CMake-mode

[Óscar Fuentes]

Ergus <spacibba@aol.com> writes:

> Hi:
>
> I have just noticed that Emacs does not have any native mode for cmake,
> not even in elpa. And cmake is becomming more and more popular these
> days.

Yes.

> There is a package in melpa which is very poorly maintained by the
> cmake community.
>
> https://melpa.org/packages/cmake-mode-20190710.1319.el
> https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/blob/master/Auxiliary/cmake-mode.el

And you think that we would do better? :-)

> But it is indeed very poor and limited compared to others like:
>
> https://melpa.org/#/cmake-font-lock

This one just adds advanced syntax highlighting, it does not provide
indentation, etc.

> and produces some conflicts when interacting.

Those are bugs, because its README says

  This package is designed to be used together with a major mode for
  editing CMake files.

and then goes on explicitly mentioning Kitware's mode.

> Could we consider to add a native cmake mode to vanilla or contact the
> Kitware people to add this one to elpa? Or in the worst case to change
> the name of their package in order to release the name and add a GPL
> versioned one to elpa?

CMake releases new versions quite often, so an elpa package (not to
mention a vanilla one) would soon be outdated unless someone (TM)
commits to keeping it up to date.

I've interacted with the Kitware guys on the distant past and I *guess*
that they would be glad to put their mode on elpa, but the relicensing
and paper signing are not straightforward because right now I see 11
contributors to that source file and most of them are not Kitware
employees. Isn't there a new elpa repository for non-GNU packages? That
would make this issue irrelevant.