The smallest build system
Summary
The article proposes embedding a tiny, imperative build system inside the project's source language (using Rust for examples) to avoid ad-hoc shell scripts and external tools. It outlines core features such as up_to_date checks, hierarchical tasks, and optional parallelism, and discusses integration with cargo xtask, positioning this approach between simple shell scripts and full-fledged tools like Bazel for small-to-mid-size projects.