> having to factor in a new build system. > there's no reason to hobble a project with it. I think this underestimates the complexity and overhead of using an

> having to factor in a new build system. > there's no reason to hobble a project with it. I think this underestimates the complexity and overhead of using and configuring some* existing build systems, and also overestimates the complexity of running (no need to edit the build config for most contributions to the project, provided the build system works well) a custom build system. Established build systems are often complex due to being heavily generalised and configurable. I've seen projects with build configs that are longer and more complex than a custom build system for that project could be. > there are plenty of auxiliary tools developed for build systems This is the key comment. You can create your own custom build system while using lower level build-related libraries. There's no need to reinvent the wheel entirely. * I said "some" existing build systems: I'm sure some are simpler than others, so this may not apply universally.