Quote Originally Posted by dude_1967
We use VC++ in combination with GNU make. The compiler / linker / assembler calls are hand-written in GNU makefiles. The projects are of type 'External Makefile'. We handle the dependencies with analysis commands using Unix tools such as AWK and SED.

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One problem we have is the amount of effort which it takes to set up a new project. There is no kind of wizard support. [...] I could imagine a support for some kind of generic external compiler / linker call which need not be explicitly entered for each source file, but rather a project-wide setting. This might make it possible to handle the header and time-stamp dependencies within VC Studio. Also it would allow for a more uniform treatment of projects, no matter what kind of exotic compiler tool-chain is to be used.
To add a lob in from the bleachers to what Steve and Tarek have already provided, I must say I love what you are doing. This strikes me as a perfect adaptation of Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition (with some careful squinting at the terms of use). Since the Express Editions are plug-in challenged, customization would have to be done by making private project and item templates (and perhaps configurations) to facilitate your build scenarios. Now that .proj files are XML, there are other opportunities with regard to co-opting MSBuild as well, depending on whether it's general-purpose enough for your needs.

Also, have you looked at the provisions for Visual Studio Extensibility that can be used with the commercial VS 2006 versions? Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/ There's even a minimal-cost redistributable IDE that can be used as a holder for custom plug-ins (I think XNA uses something like that for some game development workflow kits when VS is not installed). I'm not sure what your business case might be for going that far but it strikes me as worth a look.