On 29/11/16 Charles Daffern replied to my question about bash and make as if I was proposing that bash might beneficially reimplement make, but really I am asking why should not program builds have been scripted with bash all along and make never invented. So if Charles or someone else could point out the fallacy in the following simplistic approach, I would be grateful:
1. Script exhaustively the commands to build a unit of software.
2. Using facilities already in bash or, as appropriate, extensions, have the commands bypass actual execution when all input files are older than all output files.
It seems that this gives the same effects and benefits of make but in a more straightforward way.