The problem with autotools is that it is an abstraction over a thing that's already simple and easy at it's heart, resulting in ultimately something more comple

The problem with autotools is that it is an abstraction over a thing that's already simple and easy at it's heart, resulting in ultimately something more complex than it should've (and would've) been. M4 is nice for processing text, I do use it and like it for that, but for defining dependencies among files and processes to go from source to compiled files, make itself is second to none. Autotools is basically one of the biggest exaggerations in the computers' history. Furthermore, bmake exists and its include files are simply better.