gnumake is a scripting language based on rules. It is not a simple language (bash is not simple either), but it allows to write simple scripts that work fine to

gnumake is a scripting language based on rules. It is not a simple language (bash is not simple either), but it allows to write simple scripts that work fine to perform simple tasks. It works reasonably well for project compilation which is not a so simple task. It becomes a excessively complex when it tries to become overly generic. On one of my projects, gnumake handles double compilation of sources for shared and static libraries, compilation of test programs written in C++/java/Ada often using corba. It handles dependencies in the whole source tree and works perfectly fine. The single limitation I have encountered is the handling of spaces in file or directory names. It is very difficult in bash scripts. It is almost impossible in complex makefiles.