Comment by TheTaytay
I wish you success with this! I really was surprised to see that there isn’t a modern make replacement that actually does what make does, and does it well: build /compile things with a notion of inputs and outputs and out-of-date checks. Most appear to be “just” command runners. That’s a very useful thing to have, but it’s not really a make replacement. Then again, many “build tools” do get very large and unwieldy eventually, so maybe it’s more a case of the good make replacements simply getting too much traction…
what about meson?