[Texmacs-dev] How about adopting xmake as the build tool for GNU TeXmacs?

[Darcy Shen]

Recently, we (XmacsLabs) have switched from CMake to xmake https://xmake.io/#/ for Mogan Editor v1.1.2. The main author of the xmake migration is Darcy Shen and jinkaimori.

Personally, I strongly recommend xmake as the build tool for GNU TeXmacs. Because:

• Using xmake, we can get a nice development environment on Windows
  
• https://github.com/XmacsLabs/mogan/pull/573 the student who is interested in OSPP just created a pull request to improve the dev guide on Windows
  
• setup CI for Windows using xmake is easy: https://github.com/XmacsLabs/mogan/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci-xmake-windows.yml
  
• using xmake to package on Windows is much easier than packaging via MXE
  
• Switch from GNU Guile 1.8.x and GNU Guile 1.6.x in a easy way
  
• Just submit GNU Guile 1.8.x and GNU Guile 1.6.x to xrepo (https://xrepo.xmake.io/), and then we can enjoy linking it in an easy way
  
• It will free us from packaging or installing GNU Guile 1.8.x or 1.6.x on Ubuntu if GNU Guile is available on xrepo
  
• To use xmake, we only need the following two files:
  
• xmake.lua
  
• src/System/config.h.xmake
  
• src/System/tm_configure.hpp.xmake
  

Last time, I picked up Max's work on CMake build definition for GNU TeXmacs because CMake is much better than autotools. And this time, I suggest that we should use xmake, because xmake is much better than autotools and cmake.

I think for both GNU TeXmacs or Mogan Editor, we should remove the CMake support and add the xmake support.

And if we can add the xmake support in GNU TeXmacs in the near future, I think the students of OSPP should contribute directly to GNU TeXmacs rather than Mogan Editor.