Abstract Build systems are awesome, terrifying – and unloved. They are used by every developer around the world, but are rarely the object of study. In this paper, we offer a systematic, and executable, framework for developing and comparing build systems, viewing them as related points in a landscape rather than as isolated phenomena. By teasing apart existing build systems, we can recombine their components, allowing us to prototype new build systems with desired properties.

@article{MokhovMJ20,
  title = {Build systems à la carte: Theory and practice},
  author = {ANDREY MOKHOV and NEIL MITCHELL and SIMON PEYTON JONES},
  journal = {Journal of Functional Programming},
  volume = {30},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.1017/s0956796820000088}
}