I think it would be great to see the following build system problems solved:
For me the most important thing about the build system, is the easy way of creating debian package of it. (I dont like the make install, because it copy files all over my system, and there is no easy way to remove).
Creating debian package is mostly just a dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot.
However, sometime I need autogen.sh to run before this, and some other thing to tuning...
I have build .deb package from inkscape (to trying out the newest feature and/or bugreporting), but I never succeed to use the effects on my system.
Currently I installed the pre3 from debian SID, and the python-numpy (which is required by the perspective extension) still use and require python 2.3. Some effects are using python 2.4. And on my system there is python 2.5 too.
To summarizing up: * easy way to create system specific package (eg. debian package). * easy way to install the extensions. (using just one python version)
Just my 0.02 cents.
Khiraly