SCons is a replacement for make(1). It is written in Python and does everything make does and more:

• Configuration files are Python scripts.
• Dependency analysis built in for C,C++ and Fortran.
• Support for fetching source files from SCCS?, RCS, CVS, BitKeeper and Perforce?.
• Built in support for Visual Studio .NET and past Visual Studio versions including generation of .dsp, .dsw, .sln and .vcproj files.
• Reliable detection of build changes using MD5 signatures, optional, configurable support for traditional timestamps.
• Improved support for paralell builds.
• Integrated Autoconf?-like support for finding #include files, libraries, functions and typedefs.
• Global view of all dependencies--no more multiple build passes or reordering targets to build everything.
• Building from central repositories of source code and/or pre-built targets.
• Ability to share built files in a cache to speed up multiple builds--like ccache but for any type of target file, not just C/C++ compilation.
• Designed from the ground up for cross-platform builds, and known to work on Linux, other POSIX systems (including AIX, *BSD systems, HP/UX, IRIX and Solaris), Windows NT, Mac OS X, and OS/2.

(The above shamelessly pulled near-verbatim from the SCons website.)