ESR is building an autotools killer

The tweet doesn't add anything over the direct link:

https://gitlab.com/esr/autodafe

But there's already a mature and complete autotools killer out there called "cargo".

I'll see myself out, thank you. ;)

But what confession hides behind the project name?

"An auto-da-fé (/ˌɔːtoʊdəˈfeɪ, ˌaʊt-/ AW-toh-də-FAY, OW-; from Portuguese auto de fé , meaning 'act of faith'; Spanish: auto de fe [ˈawto ðe ˈfe]) was the ritual of public penance, carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries, of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican Inquisition as punishment and enforced by civil authorities. Its most extreme form was death by burning."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9

> converting an autotools build recipe to a bare makefile that can be read and modified by humans

I see a fundamental error here.

> a bare makefile that can be read and modified by humans

<tab> <tab> no thank you. It's not the 1970s anymore. Makefiles were a pragmatic approach to C and C++ compilation, not an elegant design choice on its own, at least not by 2024 standards. It's the build equivalent of BASIC with a bunch of GOTOs. It got the job done back when the job wasn't getting done. Again, it's not the 1970s anymore.

In what respect is this an "autotools killer"?

Another one?