Maybe combine a generic non-language specific build system (some variant of Make without the C obsession?) as the outer wrapper around a very language-oriented and inflexible/opinionated build system?
Make doesn't have a C obsession (although the docs do), make works anywhere you have a dependency graph that can be expressed as a file timestamp. Here's an example compiling a c# project: http://flukus.github.io/rediscovering-make.html . It's much simpler than any .net build tool (and I've tried them all).
That's one I haven't looked at much, but can you show me a fake script that does the equivalent of my example? That means a fully incremental build, generating version files, etc. Even things like the version file tend to turn out more complicated in most build systems because they come with a half assed reimplimentation of unix tools
From a quick look t looks like it's task based instead of output based as well, so an incremental build doesn't look simple. Correct me me if I'm wrong, but it looks like it's trying to be a better nant, not a better make.
