KDE4 builds with CMake, venerable autotools are retired

For its central source code management KDE last year migrated from the venerable "Concurrent Versioning System" (CVS) to the newer, more powerful Subversion (SVN) software. [....] Now the next big change is happening: KDE is leaving the aging "autotool" build chain behind. [....] KDE 4 will feature a completely different build system: CMake.

In typical KDE fashion the current move to CMake was not a "decision by committee". Instead, the old rule "who codes, decides" made itself felt once again. Let's look back at the history of this change.