> One problem with a standard cron approach is that you would have to
> specify in advance when to run each script.  In many cases you don't
> want your machine to be flooded with large tasks all at once, so you
> would have to guess how long each script would take to complete, and
> that tends to be both difficult to guess and variable.

If the scripts in question are to be run on the same schedule as one
another (as the old /etc/daily, for example, does), you can do

15     3       *       *       *       script1; script2; script3

Or, of course, you can write a wrapper script, which amounts to
reinventing /etc/daily.

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