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Awk is an amazing tool, and everyday I use it I wonder why I haven't learned it earlier.
by ealhad 8y ago
Awk is an amazing tool, and everyday I use it I wonder why I haven't learned it earlier.
- scbrg 8y agoI tend to post this whenever an awk discussion pops up, but at least for me, the reason I didn't learn awk earlier is that the gnu man page for awk is quite offputting. I spent ten years thinking "awk is too complicated for my weak mind." Then I stumbled on the man page of the plan9 implementation of awk and I learned the language in fifteen minutes - if even that. Sure, the gnu version is more powerful, but the plan9/original awk implementation handles most cases I run into, and I can now look up the gnu extras when I need them. http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/1/awk http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/1/awk
- coliveira 8y agoThis is a good point: GNU software complicates terribly what is supposed to be simple.
- ealhad 8y agoWhat can explain this?
- ealhad 8y agoYeah, in fact that's exactly the same reason for me. I remember when I started using GNU/Linux, trying to grok the most useful shell commands, and stumbling into awk... then quickly going somewhere else.