[dmvdoug]

> Here's a paper, "Build systems à la carte: Theory and practice,"

Awesome, thank you. I actually had that saved in my files to read later, then started really digging into it after your suggestion. Almost exactly what I was looking for!

> Can you share [1] what motivated your question and [2] what you're hoping to learn?

I suppose the simplest answer is "[1] pure curiosity and [2] whatever I can to slake it." How build systems in particular piqued my interest is a weirder, zig-zaggy story involving a bunch of different things catching my eye at random, and I'm not sure that's what you wanted to know, so I'll omit for now.