On Oct 8, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Hans Dockter wrote:

It could work sure, but that all depends on the level of diligence of the team who is maintaining it. I'm not say it won't work, I'm just saying its probably not going to work, but that is only based on a decade or so of personal experience.

My point is only that the more flexible, to fit a specific users needs/ desires, type of build systems tend to degrade much faster over time than those which follow more ridged standards. And that is it, I'm not saying that uber-flexible systems can't live a nice long life, I'm just saying from experience that they tend to end up as unmaintainable messes much quicker than the alternatives.

Seems that most of the arguments are all in favor of build tools that let the build developer do anything they want, however they want. And its only my suggestion, that this mentality is not really very healthy for the longevity of the project using such a tool.

Now for the reality of which type of system will last longer, that depends entirely upon the group/community responsible for it. So given that, either could work out just fine.

--jason