Currently, there is no management of dependencies:

• Dependencies implied by build configuration scripts, rather than being explicitly stated
• Dependencies inconsistently included in the project: as source code, as binaries, as external projects (downloaded during build), etc..
• Dependencies expected to be found on building hosts, introducing multiple versions for the same library across builds
• Upgrading/changing dependencies takes a lot of effort and essentially trial-and-error process.

Solution:

• Introduce vcpkg as package manager for 3rd-party dependencies
• Use python as build bootstrap for CI (e.g., consistent version of CMake, SWIG, etc across builds)