awk is a lot better at what it does than Python though, and much easier too. Even something simple as "cmd | awk {print $1}" in awk is something like: impor

awk is a lot better at what it does than Python though, and much easier too. Even something simple as "cmd | awk {print $1}" in awk is something like: import sys, re for line in sys.stdin.read().split('\n'): s = re.split('\s+') if len(s) > 0: print(s[0]) else: print() And I probably got that incorrect as it's probably not the way to read stdin (it's been a while since I programmed Python). I can list many gripes with Unix tools, but "awk bad" isn't on that list. It's a small language that solves a very specific problem, and does that surprisingly well. The syntax is about as simple as it gets – no idea how it's "terrible" or "impossible to remember", and it's certainly not "insane" as you seem to be suggesting.