When I need a shell script, I write a PHP script instead. (PHP has its oddities, but it has many benefits over Bash, including an optionally strictly-enforced

When I need a shell script, I write a PHP script instead. (PHP has its oddities, but it has many benefits over Bash, including an optionally strictly-enforced type system, binary-safe strings, clear C-like syntax… and like Bash it has backticks!)