I think the case he is getting it is when you should be writing an actual program using something like C where you do have access to absolutely everything. He

I think the case he is getting it is when you should be writing an actual program using something like C where you do have access to absolutely everything. He alludes to this in his first comment about exactly when to use shell scripts. > build or bootstrap scripts I agree that python and perl are not good alternatives to shell scripts... even if they are more compatible with e.g. windows environments.