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| author | Stephen Kelly <steveire@gmail.com> | 2019-11-28 16:33:27 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Brad King <brad.king@kitware.com> | 2020-01-13 11:04:55 -0500 |
| commit | bd681fee7a0f0fb95af4a71255774b52f9ea26da (patch) | |
| tree | 8c411d1a8927a4ca5966df0028ce5692d4658352 /Help/index.rst | |
| parent | 618526580065cc0161bbd84723ece3ea01a497b4 (diff) | |
| download | cmake-bd681fee7a0f0fb95af4a71255774b52f9ea26da.tar.gz | |
Help: Add guides for user interaction
Add some prose to the documentation index page to guide readers to the
major manuals and guides.
Add a new "User Interaction Guide" to help the class of new user
who wishes to build a project with CMake for the first time, such as
after cloning a repo from a git repository.
Add a new "Using Dependencies Guide" to help the class of new
user who wishes to consume a SDK provided by a third party and needs a
starting point. This is a different type of user to the user who wishes
to create their own project from scratch (addressed by the
`cmake-buildsystem(7)` manual) as each will encounter needs for
information discovery in a different order.
Diffstat (limited to 'Help/index.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Help/index.rst | 31 |
1 files changed, 31 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Help/index.rst b/Help/index.rst index cc6cee6448..4d9a9c80f5 100644 --- a/Help/index.rst +++ b/Help/index.rst @@ -1,5 +1,34 @@ .. title:: CMake Reference Documentation +Introduction +############ + +CMake is a tool to manage building of source code. Originally, CMake was +designed as a generator for various dialects of ``Makefile``, today +CMake generates modern buildsystems such as ``Ninja`` as well as project +files for IDEs such as Visual Studio and Xcode. + +CMake is widely used for the C and C++ languages, but it may be used to +build source code of other languages too. + +People encountering CMake for the first time may have different initial +goals. To learn how to build a source code package downloaded from the +internet, start with the :guide:`User Interaction Guide`. +This will detail the steps needed to run the :manual:`cmake(1)` or +:manual:`cmake-gui(1)` executable and how to choose a generator, and +how to complete the build. + +The :guide:`Using Dependencies Guide` is aimed at developers +wishing to get started using a third-party library. + +For developers starting a project using CMake, the :guide:`CMake Tutorial` +is a suitable starting point. The :manual:`cmake-buildsystem(7)` +manual is aimed at developers expanding their knowledge of maintaining +a buildsystem and becoming familiar with the build targets that +can be represented in CMake. The :manual:`cmake-packages(7)` manual +explains how to create packages which can easily be consumed by +third-party CMake-based buildsystems. + Command-Line Tools ################## @@ -53,6 +82,8 @@ Reference Manuals :maxdepth: 1 /guide/tutorial/index + /guide/user-interaction/index + /guide/using-dependencies/index .. only:: html or text |