The shell is first and foremost a user interface. Its entire purpose is just to help users use the computer. A huge amount of its functionality is in dealing wi

The shell is first and foremost a user interface. Its entire purpose is just to help users use the computer. A huge amount of its functionality is in dealing with making it convenient for people to do work - from looking at command history, to skipping back and forth along a text line, to dynamically changing a prompt, to auto-completion. Think of it as an IDE. Shell 'scripting' is only supposed to be a way to automate that IDE. It's not supposed to be a programming language. Literally the purpose is that you're sitting there at your terminal and you think "boy, I would really love to rename 100 files in a certain way". At first you write a quick one-line series of commands with a loop. But the intention is to eventually write a real dedicated program (like the `rename` command) so you don't have to write a crappy line of "scripting". Shell scripting should remain limited in functionality, and be tailored to helping someone use the IDE. If you want a systems programming language, then develop one. Go crazy and develop new ideas and push the boundaries of computer science. But please don't ruin the shell experience by trying to solve some unrelated problems with it and end up ruining the simple end user experience.