Modern CMake: A Guide to Ditching Terrible Build Systems

Tired of wrestling with frustrating build systems? This guide introduces Modern CMake (3.15+), a clean, powerful, and elegant solution that lets you focus on coding instead of battling unmaintainable build files. The author argues for choosing a robust build system, especially for cross-platform development, multiple compilers, CI/CD integration, and utilizing tools like Clang-Tidy. CMake stands out due to its wide IDE support and extensive community resources. The article recommends using a suitable minimum CMake version (3.15 or higher) and setting a maximum version for long-term compatibility, saving developers countless hours of frustration.