Thing is that Bash is something you can assume to be reasonably widely available[0] — like Perl or Python — but I wouldn't expect to have to avoid any features

Thing is that Bash is something you can assume to be reasonably widely available[0] — like Perl or Python — but I wouldn't expect to have to avoid any features from the last 10 years of either of those two. Sure, a certain grace period is to be expected but I think 10 years is way past that. [0]: I know POSIX is supposed to be even more widely available but depending on what you're targeting then it may not be the best option [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX#POSIX-oriented_operating_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX#POSIX-oriented_operating...].