Makefiles and other files are generated automatically, necessary build and dependency rules are automatically added. There are no redundancies. This reduces extremely the size of your configuration. The whole build system becomes extremely simple, lean and smart.
Simply setup a new project:
1. create a subversion basic tree
2. checkout subversion repository
3. cd into the new project subversion working copy
4. call with full path: /path/to/bootstrap.sh
5. if trunk has been created, cd to trunk
6. follow the instructions, i.e. edit configure.ac
7. run again: /path/to/bootstrap.sh
8. add some generated files: svn add COPYING ChangeLog INSTALL
9. check files, i.e. all makefile.am, set Section in debian/control.in
10. your project is setup and compilable, test: ./bootstrap.sh -b