Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Broccoli VS CMake

Compare Broccoli VS CMake and see what are their differences

Broccoli logo Broccoli

Browser compilation library, a build tool for JavaScript applications that launch in the browser.

CMake logo CMake

CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software.
  • Broccoli Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-01
  • CMake Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-21

We recommend LibHunt CMake for discovery and comparisons of trending CMake projects.

Broccoli features and specs

  • Fast Asset Pipeline
    Broccoli's architecture is designed to handle asset compilation efficiently by minimizing file system I/O operations, which results in faster build times compared to traditional build tools.
  • Incremental Rebuilding
    Broccoli supports incremental builds, meaning that only files that have changed are rebuilt, leading to improved development performance and shorter feedback loops.
  • Easy Plugin Development
    The plugin system in Broccoli is straightforward and easy to extend, allowing developers to create custom plugins to fit their specific project needs.
  • Well-Defined Build Outputs
    Broccoli emphasizes deterministic builds with clear and well-defined outputs, which helps in maintaining consistency across different environments.

Possible disadvantages of Broccoli

  • Small Ecosystem
    Compared to more popular tools like Webpack or Gulp, Broccoli has a relatively smaller ecosystem, which may limit the availability of plugins and community support.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers familiar with other build systems may find Broccoli's unique pipeline and configuration style unfamiliar, potentially leading to a learning curve.
  • Less Documentation
    Broccoli's documentation might not be as extensive or comprehensive as some other build tools, which could present challenges for new users in understanding and implementing it effectively.
  • Niche Use Case
    Broccoli is designed with a specific focus on frontend asset building, which might not make it the best fit for projects that require more general-purpose build automation.

CMake features and specs

  • Cross-platform support
    CMake is designed to support multiple operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This allows developers to write platform-independent CMake scripts.
  • Build tool agnostic
    CMake can generate build files for a variety of build systems including Makefiles, Ninja, and Visual Studio solutions. This means developers are not tied to a specific build tool.
  • Large community and extensive documentation
    CMake has a large user base and an extensive amount of documentation and tutorials available which can be helpful for new and experienced users alike.
  • Integrated testing support
    CMake includes support for testing frameworks such as CTest, which allows for automated testing of code during the build process.
  • Modular and scalable
    CMake is highly modular, enabling users to create reusable and maintainable code by organizing CMake scripts into libraries and modules.

Possible disadvantages of CMake

  • Steep learning curve
    CMake's complexity and its extensive range of features can be difficult for beginners to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Verbose syntax
    CMake scripts can often become verbose and difficult to read, especially for large projects. This can make maintenance and debugging challenging.
  • Inconsistent module quality
    The quality and support of different CMake modules can vary, sometimes leading to issues with compatibility or functionality.
  • Performance overhead
    CMake may introduce some performance overhead during the configuration process, especially for very large projects.
  • Complexity in advanced features
    Some of the more advanced features of CMake, such as custom commands and complex dependency management, can be quite difficult to implement correctly.

Analysis of CMake

Overall verdict

  • CMake is generally considered a good tool for managing the build process of software projects, especially those with a complex codebase that spans multiple platforms.

Why this product is good

  • Flexibility
    It offers great flexibility in terms of defining build processes, enabling advanced configuration and optimization techniques to be used.
  • Integration
    It integrates well with many popular IDEs and other tools, providing a smoother development experience.
  • Wide adoption
    CMake is widely used in the industry, which leads to robust community support and regular updates.
  • Cross platform support
    CMake is designed to support multiple platforms, which makes it highly valuable for projects that need to be compiled and run on different operating systems.

Recommended for

  • projects requiring cross-platform compatibility
  • developers looking for a powerful build configuration tool
  • complex software projects with numerous dependencies
  • teams that value strong community and industry support

Broccoli videos

Rap Critic: "Broccoli" - Big Baby D.R.A.M. ft. Lil Yachty

More videos:

  • Review - Broccoli Reviews. Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
  • Review - BROCCOLI REVIEW

CMake videos

CMake for Dummies

More videos:

  • Review - CppCon 2017: Mathieu Ropert โ€œUsing Modern CMake Patterns to Enforce a Good Modular Designโ€
  • Review - Hunter, a CMake driven package manager for C/C++ projects - Daniel Friedrich - Lightning Talks

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Broccoli and CMake)
JS Build Tools
26 26%
74% 74
Front End Package Manager
Web Application Bundler
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Package Manager

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CMake seems to be a lot more popular than Broccoli. While we know about 55 links to CMake, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Broccoli. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Broccoli mentions (3)

  • Show HN: Broccoli, one shot coding agent on the cloud
    Broccoli has been around for 13 years. https://github.com/broccolijs/broccoli. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 16 Top NodeJS tools to make you a better developer
    โ€ BroccoliJS Broccoli is a JavaScript build management tool. It creates a distributable version of your application assets that you can run in a browser. BroccoliJS uses a modular plugin architecture to do configuration in JavaScript. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
  • Node.js Packages and Resources
    Broccoli - Fast, reliable asset pipeline, supporting constant-time rebuilds and compact build definitions. - Source: dev.to / almost 5 years ago

CMake mentions (55)

  • How I deployed my first project for my devops portfolio: Project Architecture
    I used CMAKE as my compiling tool followed by make. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • DeadLock: Research Results & Tech Stack
    All this C++ project can't be ran as simple C++ code, so I will be building this whole package using CMake. It will streamline building this project onto other computers. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Master This Feature of DevEco Studio to Efficiently Implement ArkTS and C++ Glue Code
    For knowledge in this aspect, you can refer to the relevant documents of the CMake build tool: https://cmake.org/. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Creating a Native Desktop GUI Using C++ with GTK
    I used CMAKE to define the build configurations. I find it very convenient that CMAKE generates the Makefile on Linux and can also create a Visual Studio project on Windows. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Top 7 C++ Tools to explore in 2024 if it's not already the case.
    CMake stands for "Cross-platform Make" and is an open-source, platform-independent build system. It's designed to build, test, and package software projects written in C and C++, but it can also be used for other languages. Here's an overview of CMake and its features:. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Broccoli and CMake, you can also consider the following products

Webpack - Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset.

GNU Make - GNU Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

Grunt - The Grunt ecosystem is huge and it's growing every day.

SCons - SCons is an Open Source software construction toolโ€”that is, a next-generation build tool.

Gulp.js - Automate and enhance your workflow

SBT - SBT is a build tool for Scala, like Ant or Maven but with hieroglyphics.