Pragmatic Automation links to an article about using rake, which has been getting a bit of press on the PA site. My first impression is “oh it’s SCons in a weirdo language”, but on further inspection it looks like it’s a less specific build tool, in that you have to specify the means to the end as well as the end goal; but then you’re no better than make – perhaps a little better, because of the power granted by the language, but SCons has much more to offer, I reckon.