`just` is 90% similar to `make` in syntax, only it has 100x less foot guns. :)

Also I'll never understand the appeal of "not having to install a tool". We're not in the 1980s anymore when that was an actual chore. You run a command, the tool is there (including in CI/CD), boom, done. What am I missing here?

The advantages you list are flimsy at best.

Bootstrapping can be painful in some languages or frameworks. Not everyone is running containerised builds where there are ephemeral environments that you just install a tool (and pay the 30+ second cost per build to run apt-get update). There’s certainly value in having a front door entry point. But I think it should be a shell script, not a makefile.

Yes to your last. Either sh/bash script or a precompiled Golang program. If installing a tool is really such a problem then having a precompiled strongly typed program doing various tasks should be a no-brainer.

I started openly hating `make` because I re-learned its specifics and quirks several times over the course of 10-ish years and then figured that I want to learn stuff with a staying power in my brain. I don't use `make` every work day so eventually any quirks disappear -- that's how our brains work.

So that's why I learned most of `just` and it hasn't betrayed me so far, not once. Though I did write a few Elixir and Golang programs for running various tasks in production environment, too.