> > currently to link Midas to project one has to do several steps ...
> 
> this information is incorrect. please read https://daq00.triumf.ca/elog-midas/Midas/2258
> 
> a very simple way to use link MIDAS using midas-targets.cmake has been implemented a long time ago.

I admit that i did not see your post about targets import
via `include($ENV{MIDASSYS}/lib/midas-targets.cmake)`
before implementing changes to cmake scripts.
But in this respect the way you propose to do it via `include` should still work.
Note however that `include(...)` way is very unusual as one have to know exactly
where `...-targets.cmake` is located and standard way in cmake is via `find_package`
(similar to how e.g. ROOT, Geant4, etc. are found and linked).

The things that changed (and are incompatible with what was before)
is the naming of targets (in `midas-targets.cmake` with `midas::` namespace,
which is standard practice in cmake to distinguish cmake targets from bare library names
(e.g. when you do `link_libraries(midas)` it may be interpreted as linking with `-lmidas`
or if target is defined it does machinery to link actual cmake target; the namespace way
makes it unambiguous).
Though i again admit that maybe the namespace change was a bit too much as it may
have broken previous users of `include($ENV{MIDASSYS}/lib/midas-targets.cmake)`

> 
> before proposing a new way of doing things, it would be nice to hear about shortcomings
> of the existing stuff.

- shortcomings of what was before is usage of non-standard `include(...)`
- one shortcoming i see for new implementation is usage `midas::` namespace
  (mentioned above) that may have broken some setups

> A simple "Konstantin's way sucks" or "this is not the cmake way!"
> would have been sufficient.

- `find_package` is standard and recommended way of finding packages
    - note that `include($ENV{MIDASSYS}/lib/midas-targets.cmake)` should still work
      (but with usage of `midas::midas` instead of simply `midas`)
    - in the end `find_package` works by locating and loading `MidasConfig.cmake`,
      and it now actually does `include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../../midas-targets.cmake")`,
      so in this respect `find_package` is the same as `include(...)`,
      but it also preserves old behavior of exporting cmake vars for includes/libs
      such that prev uses are unaffected,
      and does a bit more checking such that it can be used for both in- and out-of-tree builds
    
- in addition `find_package` allows to handle components,
  e.g. now it is possible to do
  `find_package(Midas COMPONENTS manalyzer)`
  instead of also doing `include($ENV{MIDASSYS}/lib/manalyzer-targets.cmake)`

> 
> K.O.

Alex