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> a non–trivial amount of M4 That's horrifying, and certainly not the purpose of m4. Yet, it does not mean that m4 is not beautiful, for doing small things th
by enriquto 6y ago
> a non–trivial amount of M4
That's horrifying, and certainly not the purpose of m4. Yet, it does not mean that m4 is not beautiful, for doing small things that would be a bit cumbersome in awk, for example.
> There’s no way to create abstractions
Best feature in my view. Abstractions always suck. Would you complain that there's no way to create abstractions in sed, for example?
- db48x 6y agoYes. The only use for sed (and awk) is one–liners. That you either use once and throw away or immediately assign to a shell alias so that you can reuse it, because a shell alias is a means of abstraction.