[Dclug] useful bash commands -- and a useful source of such!

[Johnson, Steve (NIH/OD/ORS) [E]]

Of course it is amusing or instructive to review the list discussion of shell programming, but as Alan pointed out this can seem like opinion about programming technique. I know one thing; if I get stuck on a shell programming problem it is time to post that query to the list.
Somewhere in the discussion was the statement that a close alternative to writing a lot of shell code is just using rudimentary C, sort of the utility type program. And that is what I do. I have a GUI interface consisting of a roughly 8 x 10 block of command buttons; the name of this program is SteveJohnsonShell, and all it does is fire off commands, either shell programs, web browser launch, other utilities I use, jumps into the file system.
I'll never forget the time my favorite guru said he no longer wanted to entertain the endless quibble about programming technique. Well no doubt there is always more than one way to skin a cat. That applies whether the programming language is typeless (or without declared enforcement of type, as with LISP and the shell) or a vast superstructure of predeclared type, as with the Java API (where you have algebraically provable security, or at least a sandbox.) So yes, there is technique or art of programming to be learned for shell, just as there is learning for the APIs. And no I don't think it is just practice that makes perfect, in other words I'd be willing to argue for a top down approach to the programming design, as guess you see in large development organizations, who still go out of their way to hire the most practiced of shell programmers.
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