A bluffers guide to the Scons build system

The traditional build system for C/C++ programming has been based on make Writing Makefiles is a specialist skill (guru status) which few people truly master (or want to master for that matter).

As a consequence of alternatives have been developed. Probably the most widely used addaption is CMake an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software. CMake is a 'meta-make' utility, it doesn't actually replace make. CMake uses its own notation to generate the Makefile to then use make.

For host based development this may still be one of the best alternatives, but using CMake at times feels like meddling in the dark arts! For embedded development we find it is not straightforward and easy to master.

The other two more widely used alternatives probably depend on your scripting preference. If you're into Ruby then you may well look to use the very powerful Rake build system. Howvever, I'm not a Ruby person!

Python is probably the most widely used, modern, scripting language and this bring use to Scons. Designed from the ground up for cross-platform builds, and known to work on Linux (and other POSIX systems), Windows, Mac OS X, and even OS/2 (anyone still using this?).