> although I really don't think the lack of namespaces it what has hindered Awk from widespread use I agree (I side more with Kernighan than Robbins here). My

> although I really don't think the lack of namespaces it what has hindered Awk from widespread use I agree (I side more with Kernighan than Robbins here). My take on what hindered it from larger-scale use: lack of a big standard library (Kernighan more or less says this) -- Python and Go's stdlibs really helped them for example, and some significant quirks like lack of proper local variables (you can get them with extra arguments, but it's weird). Just skimmed your AWK-learning talk -- very good stuff. I'm relatively proficient, but keen to try your exercises anyway!