Hi guys,
As the C++ learning track was just released, I thought I’d give it a go for JurassicJuly. I’ve downloaded the lasagna exercise to my machine, have created the build directory as per the instructions, running cmake -G Xcode .. from the build directory returns the below error
-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:8 (project):
No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Is the c++ compiler installed? On linux, i believe the typical compiler is called g++. What’s the output of the command g++?
edited to add Apologies - I should not assume that you are on a Mac!
If you are on a Mac:
You might need to install or update XCode or XCode Command Line Tools.
This article has several strategies for C++ - there are instructions there for both XCode and the Command line tools.
This SO post also has some good comments and explanations of what might be going on with a Mac not finding a compiler and linker. TL;DR: if you don’t install the command line tools, you don’t get LLVM and other goodies.
Is there anything we can change in the docs to make it easier for other people to get the thing running on a Mac?
I’m happy to improve that part of the track, but I don’t have a Mac to test things.
Thank you @BethanyG, after following the step 1 instructions to install Xcode and setup a C++ project in the link you sent, I have successfully created the the inital build with no errors!
@vaeng perhaps you want to include instructions on setting up the prerequisites? If you’d like, I can submit a PR for this.
brew install cmakePlease, you know best what you did to make it run. Ping me, so I can reopen the PR when the bot has closed it.
Upon further inspection, I probably should have just read the installation instructions, I think installing GCC via brew would’ve cleared up the compiler issue I first created this post about.
That said, the CMake command wouldn’t work until I installed and configured a project in Xcode. It threw an error along the lines of Xcode 1.5 not supported. Prior to this, I hadn’t installed Xcode as the development I do is in VSCode and Eclipse. The installation instructions seem to infer that as long as you have a major IDE installed, you should be fine "so you should only need to install the IDE.".
I can still make a PR to really try and clarify this point within the installation instructions and probably make a reference back to the installation prerequisites from the testing instructions.
Let me know!
I think PR-ing to clarify would be great. It is super-annoying to be in the middle of things, only to realize that you have to stop and download or update Xcode/Xcode tools and configure a project there before you can even run CMake.
…even when you aren’t going to use Xcode as a dev environment!
I love my Apple 'puter, but 
And it’s an easy detail to miss.
