5 ms·

What the hell. This is cool and all but I'm looking at it as a signal I should move up one tier in language (eg: to Perl, PHP, Python or Ruby)

by edoceo 1y ago

o11c 1y ago
I actually tried rewriting this in Python, but gave up since Python's startup latency is atrocious if you have even a few imports (and using a socket to a pre-existing server is fundamentally unable to preserve enough process context related to the terminal). Perl would probably be a better fit but it's $CURRENTYEAR and I've managed to avoid learning Perl every year so far, and I don't want to break my streak just for this. The Bash code is not only fast but pretty easy to understand (other than perhaps the header, which I never have to change).
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago
  Maybe try ruby, or you could use go (yeah, have to compile)
- dataflow 1y ago
  PHP maybe? Or in limited cases, AWK? But I'd definitely learn Perl, it's a gem.
  - oguz-ismail 1y ago
    PHP needs to be installed, Perl is dead and AWK is more limited than Bash
    - ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1y ago
      > PHP needs to be installed There are some ways around this: https://github.com/crazywhalecc/static-php-cli https://github.com/crazywhalecc/static-php-cli
    - macintux 1y ago
      For what little it’s worth, Perl is very much not dead.
0xbadcafebee 1y ago
Or go the other direction: stop trying to do fancy things and write simpler code that avoids errors. #!/bin/sh [ "${DEBUG:-0}" = "1" ] && set -x set -u foo="$( my-external-program | pipe1 | pipe2 | pipe3 )" if [ -z "$foo" ] ; then echo "Error: I didn't get any output; exiting!" exit 1 fi echo "Well I got something back. Was it right?" if ! printf "%s\n" "$foo" | grep -q -E 'some-extended-regex' ; then echo "Error: '$foo' didn't match what I was looking for; exiting!" exit 1 fi echo "Do the thing now..." A lot of programs will either produce valid output as STDOUT, or if they encounter an error, not produce STDOUT. So for the most part you just need to 1) look for any STDOUT at all, and then 2) filter it for the specific output you're looking for. For anything else, just die with an error. If you need to find out why it didn't run, re-run with DEBUG=1. Advanced diagnosis code won't make your program work better, but it will make it more complicated. Re-running with tracing enabled works just as well 99% of the time.
- maccard 1y ago
  > A lot of programs will either produce valid output as STDOUT, or if they encounter an error not produce stdout Lots of programs produce nothing in the success case and only print in the failure case.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- o11c 1y ago
  Ah yes, the old "just write non-buggy code, or at least code whose bugs are deterministic". My solution just silently sits in the background for unexpected, unpredictable bugs.

What the hell. This is cool and all but I'm looking at it as a signal I should move up one tier in language (eg: to Perl, PHP, Python or Ruby)

by edoceo 1y ago

What the hell. This is cool and all but I'm looking at it as a signal I should move up one tier in language (eg: to Perl, PHP, Python or Ruby)

o11c 1y ago

I actually tried rewriting this in Python, but gave up since Python's startup latency is atrocious if you have even a few imports (and using a socket to a pre-existing server is fundamentally unable to preserve enough process context related to the terminal). Perl would probably be a better fit but it's $CURRENTYEAR and I've managed to avoid learning Perl every year so far, and I don't want to break my streak just for this. The Bash code is not only fast but pretty easy to understand (other than perhaps the header, which I never have to change).

Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago
Maybe try ruby, or you could use go (yeah, have to compile)
dataflow 1y ago
PHP maybe? Or in limited cases, AWK? But I'd definitely learn Perl, it's a gem.
- oguz-ismail 1y ago
  PHP needs to be installed, Perl is dead and AWK is more limited than Bash
  - ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1y ago
    > PHP needs to be installed There are some ways around this: https://github.com/crazywhalecc/static-php-cli https://github.com/crazywhalecc/static-php-cli
  - macintux 1y ago
    For what little it’s worth, Perl is very much not dead.

0xbadcafebee 1y ago

Or go the other direction: stop trying to do fancy things and write simpler code that avoids errors. #!/bin/sh [ "${DEBUG:-0}" = "1" ] && set -x set -u foo="$( my-external-program | pipe1 | pipe2 | pipe3 )" if [ -z "$foo" ] ; then echo "Error: I didn't get any output; exiting!" exit 1 fi echo "Well I got something back. Was it right?" if ! printf "%s\n" "$foo" | grep -q -E 'some-extended-regex' ; then echo "Error: '$foo' didn't match what I was looking for; exiting!" exit 1 fi echo "Do the thing now..." A lot of programs will either produce valid output as STDOUT, or if they encounter an error, not produce STDOUT. So for the most part you just need to 1) look for any STDOUT at all, and then 2) filter it for the specific output you're looking for. For anything else, just die with an error. If you need to find out why it didn't run, re-run with DEBUG=1. Advanced diagnosis code won't make your program work better, but it will make it more complicated. Re-running with tracing enabled works just as well 99% of the time.

maccard 1y ago
> A lot of programs will either produce valid output as STDOUT, or if they encounter an error not produce stdout Lots of programs produce nothing in the success case and only print in the failure case.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
o11c 1y ago
Ah yes, the old "just write non-buggy code, or at least code whose bugs are deterministic". My solution just silently sits in the background for unexpected, unpredictable bugs.