Multiple IDE project files

Question

We are currently working in a team where we use both Visual Studio and Code::Blocks, is there a way to replicate changes between those project files? So if one adds a file to the project file it will also get adjusted in the project file of the other IDE?

Please note: We want our project to work on multiple IDE's, platforms and compilers. Thus a general solution is welcome too.

Answer 1

I assume you're using a VCS? If so my intuition would be to write a script that syncs up your project files (based on modification date?) and run it as a checkin hook if any of the project files are changed in the commit.

http://wordaligned.org/articles/a-subversion-pre-commit-hook

Answer 2

Well this sounds like exactly the type of problem CMake was created to solve. There is definitely a learning curve which I blame mainly on the obtuse documentation but CMake is used in a lot of open source projects now, such as KDE, OGRE and many, many others so there are a lot of usage examples out there. There is also a basic tutorial here.

CMake uses it's own syntax (which is fairly complex though still easier than autotools in my opinion) which is used with project file generators, which supports make, visual studio, codeblocks, eclipse and possibly others. It also has a installer generator which can make NSIS installers, Mac OS X bundles and debian/red hat packages (and again, possibly others) which I find quite useful.