On 8/29/22 5:48 AM, Martin D Kealey wrote:
The Shell persists because it has one killer feature: it does double duty as a scripting language and as an interactive command language. But we're kidding ourselves if we think that no other language could fill that gap: Python has a respectable interactive mode, though its focus is on objects rather than processes and files; the interactive "debugger" console inside Firefox speaks Javascript; and even "perl -d" is almost usable.
So, neither of those could fill that gap. What could then?
As for the future, I believe that if we don't move towards making the POSIX sh behaviour a truly optional part of an otherwise-more-sane language, we condemn Bash to continued obscurity and eventual extinction.
Nah. I think Bash already has too many features over POSIX; anything beyond indexed arrays, indirect expansions, and `${parameter/string/replacement}' is bloat.
Besides, who is going to evolve Bash into this "more-sane language"?
