Except it’s a build system for C/C++ that brings in a dependency on the entire Python kitchen sink just to build a 10kb otherwise dependency-free binary.

The systems that I use it for all have Python installed by default, so really it's just: 'pip install meson', which takes all of a few seconds to run.

The binary it produces is still dependency free.

I’m (honestly) glad it works for you.

Distributing binaries outside of package managers is a) a rarity in the Linux world, and b) not in keeping with the open source philosophy. Requiring end users to have python so they can compile a c/c++ application will never make sense for a large portion of the user base build systems target.

It's no more egregious than requiring cmake or autotools.

And like I said, many Linux systems (and almost any used as a developers machine) will have Python installed by default.

And the simplicity of meson's build files far outweighs any issues installing it.

>The binary it produces is still dependency free.

But the project now depends on Python, pip and Meson.

As opposed to cmake or autotools?

I mean it's not like Python is a rarity on Linux systems, or a difficult thing to install (assuming it wasn't installed by default)

Python might not be rare but Meson for sure is. Cmake and autotools are very common compared to that.

Rare yes, but no more effort to install, and significantly more pleasant to use.

Well, and frankly, python people shouldn't use this anyway.