How do I use CMake?

CMake takes a CMakeList file, and outputs it to a platform-specific build format, e.g. a Makefile, Visual Studio, etc.

You run CMake on the CMakeList first. If you're on Visual Studio, you can then load the output project/solution.

I don't know about Windows (never used it), but on a Linux system you just have to create a build directory (in the top source directory)

mkdir build-dir

go inside it

cd build-dir

then run cmake and point to the parent directory

cmake ..

and finally run make

make

Notice that make and cmake are different programs. cmake is a Makefile generator, and the make utility is governed by a Makefile textual file. See cmake & make wikipedia pages.

NB: On Windows, cmake might operate so could need to be used differently. You'll need to read the documentation (like I did for Linux)

Yes, cmake and make are different programs. cmake is (on Linux) a Makefile generator (and Makefile-s are the files driving the make utility). There are other Makefile generators (in particular configure and autoconf etc...). And you can find other build automation programs (e.g. ninja).