&Aap; is a program that builds (compiles and links) other programs, much like the venerable make(1) program. However, &Aap; uses the power of Python to make the "recipes" (instructions on how to build a program) more readable and more flexible. &Aap; can also replace the age-old autotools and make toolchain. &Aap; does not trade power for complexity. For many programs, you need only list the name of the program, the sources and libraries it needs, and &Aap; does the rest. A powerful module system makes adding new programming languages to &Aap;'s repertoire fairly straightforward. &Aap; supports C, C++, D, Qt's moc, KDE's dcopidl, and libtool. Installation To start using &Aap; you must have two applications: Python version 1.5 or later &Aap; Python is often installed already. Try this: python -V If you get a "Command not found" error you still need to install Python. Help for this can be found on the Python web site: www.python.org/download/. For obtaining and installing &Aap; look here: www.a-a-p.org/download.html. A summary for the impatient: Create a directory called "aap/Exec". Download the latest &Aap; zip archive and unpack it in the new directory. Run "./aap install" or "aap install". To check if your &Aap; program is working, type this command: aap --help You should get a list of the command line arguments. Note that there are two dashes before "help". You can read details about the command line arguments in .