[drainyard]

A lot of the time I see these build systems try to solve a few issues:

1. Dependency handling

2. Single script for multiple platforms

3. Easy for a new user to just "run"

But I have yet to find a build system (for C/C++) that solves all these issues better than simply having a few scripts.

I use just a build.batch, linux_build.sh and osx_build.sh usually and I have never had problems.

A new user can just download those scripts, and as long as they haven't tampered with file/library locations it just works.

If people like their build systems - fine by me - but I just think they are unnecessarily complex a lot of the time. Granted I don't have a huge project with 100's of dependencies, but even then, those dependencies don't come all at once.

[bluGill]

Problem is I do tamper with those. I often cross compile software (my day job is embedded linux). Different distributions like to put things in different locations for their own reasons. I have a multi-core computer and I'd like to use more than one of them so my build goes faster.

As a developer I don't want to have to worry about how to make all of the above work. I learned cmake and so I don't have to worry, now that I know it (the learning curve is there) almost all my issues go away because it just works with all the weird stuff people do.

[drivebycomment]

Nothing wrong with using a shovel to dig in your backyard for planting. But that experience does not extrapolate to using an excavator to build a skyscraper.