> Let's be honest, nobody really wants to learn Makefile syntax.
Make's syntax is quite simple. It's a bunch of variables one has to memorise, and man page is a command away. And any decent editor would know to insert literal tabs.
> Make is _really_ hard to use to try to compose a large build system from small re-usable steps.
I have no experience myself, but Linux's build system is a bunch of homebrew makefiles, all the BSDs and their ports trees build with bmake. These are enough positive examples for me to think that Make is good for big systems.
Make's syntax is quite simple. It's a bunch of variables one has to memorise, and man page is a command away. And any decent editor would know to insert literal tabs.
> Make is _really_ hard to use to try to compose a large build system from small re-usable steps.
I have no experience myself, but Linux's build system is a bunch of homebrew makefiles, all the BSDs and their ports trees build with bmake. These are enough positive examples for me to think that Make is good for big systems.