Older versions just converted project description into nmake underneath, and that's what really built the project. I don't see why that would change. That nmakefile is autogenerated is ugly, bit not as ugly as bunch of XMLs. Just to clarify, this (and other comments) represent just my personal (regular contributor's) opinion, the maintainer may for example find project files acceptable (though I hope I gave objective reasoning against it). He just busy with Kickstart logistics now, so his review may take some time.

There was discussion about alternative build system, with people throwing different names at the altar. As you may imagine, it ended up with "make is the make, everything else is just a niche tool with few zealots and few haters; while make works for us, we can as well just use it."