I like discussing build systems. However, personally I still come back to make all the time. There are certainly better alternatives (tup, shake, redo, etc), bu

I like discussing build systems. However, personally I still come back to make all the time. There are certainly better alternatives (tup, shake, redo, etc), but make is simply available everywhere. It is available, if I use an OS which is a decade old. It will be available, if I use an OS in ten years from now. I am writing this on Ubuntu LTS (12.04) and none of those three advanced build systems above is available from the default repos. This means a serious dependency burden, if somebody wants to build my stuff. A few years ago, Jam was a promising build system. It seems to be dead now. Hopefully, tup and shake will stay longer. Until you have good reasons against make, it is a perfectly fine initial solution.