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My experience is different. For me, Python has a good balance of readability, access to system functions and consistent, predictable interfaces. I'm not saying

My experience is different. For me, Python has a good balance of readability, access to system functions and consistent, predictable interfaces. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that "it depends". I'm pretty adequate at writing BASH, but it's not my "daily driver" programming language, so I have to still try things out, google a lot of things that aren't easily obvious, and excessive trial and error. But as a Java programmer I also know that Java, with all of its abstractions and verbosity, is a complete non-starter for shell scripting. For me, Python has often been a helpful compromise. Part of this may also be that I've never learned to do a great job at organizing a BASH shell "project". So, those often get unwieldy maintenance nightmares. At plenty of time me and my peers have agreed: when your BASH script exceeds [some low number of] lines, find another language. Again, it matters a lot what your team's culture and comforts are. If that's BASH for you, then r.e.s.p.e.c.t.

dahart 5y ago
You’re comparing Python and Bash as programming languages, not as shells. Python’s great as a programming language, but it’s a terrible shell. Likewise, Bash is a terrible programming language, but as a shell is pretty good and is probably the most used shell. The point parent was making is that it’s far more difficult in Python to run a process, capture the output, and grep something from it, than it is in Bash. In Bash this is a one liner with extremely minimal syntax. In Python, this is a big multi-line affair invoking several modules and multiple functions. Python isn’t a shell purely because you can’t execute an executable file by typing the bare name of the file. Python also doesn’t pass the cut & paste test - you normally can’t paste snippets from somewhere into a Python repl due to indentation issues, this alone makes it very difficult to use as an interactive shell. And Python is not meant to be an interactive shell, so there isn’t much of a problem.
- sverhagen 5y ago
  Sure, but the conversation had already evolved to "scripting languages" as opposed to command lines.
  - dahart 5y ago
    Where did that happen? The comment you replied to emphasized “system level stuff”. The comment before that emphasized “shells”.

dahart 5y ago

You’re comparing Python and Bash as programming languages, not as shells. Python’s great as a programming language, but it’s a terrible shell. Likewise, Bash is a terrible programming language, but as a shell is pretty good and is probably the most used shell. The point parent was making is that it’s far more difficult in Python to run a process, capture the output, and grep something from it, than it is in Bash. In Bash this is a one liner with extremely minimal syntax. In Python, this is a big multi-line affair invoking several modules and multiple functions. Python isn’t a shell purely because you can’t execute an executable file by typing the bare name of the file. Python also doesn’t pass the cut & paste test - you normally can’t paste snippets from somewhere into a Python repl due to indentation issues, this alone makes it very difficult to use as an interactive shell. And Python is not meant to be an interactive shell, so there isn’t much of a problem.

sverhagen 5y ago
Sure, but the conversation had already evolved to "scripting languages" as opposed to command lines.
- dahart 5y ago
  Where did that happen? The comment you replied to emphasized “system level stuff”. The comment before that emphasized “shells”.