For scripting, I recommend the rc shell from plan9, which is the one I use for my shell scripts. It is only when I want to share a script with other people that

For scripting, I recommend the rc shell from plan9, which is the one I use for my shell scripts. It is only when I want to share a script with other people that I consider using /bin/sh, and even then more often than not I've gone for rc. I invite you to read about it: http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/rc http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/rc. I find the control structures simpler and more elegant, and overall its design feels more consistent. For example, consider an if statement in bash: if [ condition ]; then ... else ... fi And now in rc: if (condition) { ... } else { ... } Or a case statement in bash: case $1 in "bar") ... ;; "baz") ... ;; esac And expressed in rc: switch ($1) { case "bar" ... case "baz" ... } In the past, I've used it as my shell too, but now I use it only for scripting. I think you can install it in most platforms.