[zaphar]

    And then the person that wrote them leaves and we're fucked.

Where in the article does he say in-house tools are better? His point is about tool composability. Just because you haven't run into the wall he describes Maven having yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. He says as much in fact. He recommends starting with maven till you outgrow it which seems perfectly reasonable.

[cbsmith]

I think you missed the point. The problem with comparability is that you have the freedom to compose things however you want to. It's not exactly uncommon for "composable" build systems to be all but inscrutable to the next guy.

The consistency of an opinionated build tool does provide some not insignificant benefit.

[cbsmith]

s/The problem with comparability/The problem with composability/