sources
    |
    +---applications
    |       |
    |       +---loveandpeace
    |       |       |
    |       |       +---unix
    |       |       |
    |       |       +---win32
    |       |
    |       +---worlddomination
    |               |
    |               +---unix
    |               |
    |               +---win32
    |
    +---tools--- ...

##</code><code>##

  .SUFFIXES: .cxx .cpp .c .o
  # APPNAME is the parent directory of the current one
  APPNAME = ${shell perl -MCwd -e 'print +(split/\//,cwd)[-2]'}
  EXE = ${APPNAME} 
  ...
  (the usual stuff follows)
  ...