May I ask what is the alternative? Creating an entire application for a single use? designing a generalized case and making a monolithic application with lots o

May I ask what is the alternative? Creating an entire application for a single use? designing a generalized case and making a monolithic application with lots of obscure options? What about setting up the project for the application, setting up instrumentation and testing, debugging, etc.? Even supposing that all that extra work makes sense for your unique string manipulation needs, what about the next time something like this comes up but is out of scope for your first tool? Do you end up with lots of little applications, with lots of little features and arguments? When you come across that similar-but-not-quite need down the road, do you have to scour your library of full blown apps to find something that fits? Not to mention maintaining them against future system updates... OR - you could just force yourself to get over the hump, learn the conceptual basics at play and then when you come across a novel situation down the line you can just rattle off a tailored one-liner and have your answer in a few moments...