A friend of mine used a makefile. This makefile compiled code, ran tests, extracted statistics, created updated graphics and regenerated a paper. Change one par

A friend of mine used a makefile. This makefile compiled code, ran tests, extracted statistics, created updated graphics and regenerated a paper. Change one parameter and typing a single make command was enough for having everything re-generated. Change one line of code and the code included in the paper changed, run it on another machine and appendix about the machine where the tests were ran changes automatically. I see no other environment that could make these possibilities so simple and easy.