Writing Minimal Build Systems in the Source Language Itself

Summary

Evan Martin, known for creating the Ninja build system, published a blog post exploring the idea of embedding a minimal build system directly in a project's source language rather than relying on shell scripts, Makefiles, or external task runners. The post argues that for small projects with miscellaneous build-like needs spanning language boundaries — such as code generation or documentation rebuilds — a tiny, self-contained build system written in the project's own language can be more practic