My problem with make for data pipelines is that a lot if decisions have to be content based instead of timestamp based. Multiple platforms is also an issue, I usually don't bother installing the whole Cygwin just for gnu make. I end up with custom python scripts which may be more verbose but more flexible and almost always cross-platform.
How does Waf compare to SCons? I'm a big fan of SCons, although it annoyingly does not have transitive dependency resolution for libraries. Waf has this functionality, correct?
I found it hard to make scons build outside my source directory (instead of polluting it). This is important for example when you don't want random files showing up in your git clone.
With waf, this is easy.
Subjectively, waf code looks more Pythonic than scons, though both are supposedly Python.
Waf is also much nicer for end-users, if you're the sort who distributes source packages. It mimics the "./configure; make; make install" sequence as "./waf configure; ./waf; ./waf install".
