Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++

Not sure how big your plans are.

My thoughts would be to start as a cmake generator but to eventually replace it. Maybe optionally.

And to integrate suppoet for existing package managers like vcpkg.

At the same time, I'd want to remain modular enough that's it's not all or nothing. I also don't like locking.

But right now package management and build system are decoupled completely. And they are not like that in other ecosystems.

For example, Cmake can use vcpkg to install a package but then I still have to write more cmake to actually find and use it.

What I've been doing to manage dependencies in a way that doesn't depress me much has been Nix flakes, which allows me a pretty straightforward `nix build` with the correct dependencies built in.

I'm just a bit curious though; a lot of C libraries are system-wide, and usually require the system package manager (e.g. libsdl2-dev) does this have an elegant way to handle those?

https://github.com/xmake-io/xmake

The reason why I like it (beyond ease-of-use) is that it can spit out CMakeLists.txt and compile_commands.json for IDE/LSP integration and also supports installing Conan/vcpkg libraries or even Git repos.

    set_project("myapp")
    set_languages("c++20")

    add_requires("conan::fmt/11.0.2", {alias = "fmt"})
    add_requires("vcpkg::fmt", {alias = "fmt"})
    add_requires("git://github.com/fmtlib/fmt v11.0.2", {alias = "fmt"})

    target("myapp")
        set_kind("binary")
        add_files("src/*.cpp")
        add_packages("fmt")

  # Generate compile_commands.json and CMakeLists.txt
  $ xmake project -k compile_commands
  $ xmake project -k cmake

  # Build + run
  $ xmake && xmake run myapp