UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Greetings!

I love the power and control offered by BASH but detest its syntax! Is there some alternative *nix shell language? (other than TCSH)

Or maybe a wrapper that affords the use of BASH commands via an easier syntax?

I considered creating a complicated system of aliases to accomplish this, but 1) the aliases would only work on my computer and 2) I'd rather not :P

Anyone know of a pre-build aliases set / shell wrapper / alternative shell / alternative CLI or even better ... some alternative to the CLI altogether that still gives the user the power ad control of BASH without being confusing and irritating to use.

Okay, let's brainstorm...

Hi.

Why don't you start by saying what kind of language you do like, then perhaps we could better recommend an alternative for you.

It might better help us also if you said exactly what it is about "BASH" you find so detestable.

For my 2 cents, you won't find a better scripting language than Bash or Ksh, so good luck here!

From reading your post it's not really clear if you are talking about "BASH" or UNIX in general.

If it had all the power and control of a CLI, why wouldn't it be useful as a CLI too?

What specifically are you looking for in a language? We need a better description than "better"...

Python/Perl.

---------- Post updated at 07:05 PM ---------- Previous update was at 06:58 PM ----------

Python

Ah yes, I see some clarification is needed.

The BEST programming/script/anything language is:

1) Simple (i.e. only as complicated as absolutely necessary) (python is simple)

2) Intuitive; not necessarily easy to learn. (i.e. implemented logically, syntactically logical, semantically logical) (C is extremely syntactically logical, although semantically it can be a little cryptic)

3) As good as BASH or TCSH (functionally speaking)

I've coded in python and C and enjoy both.

BASH, while ubiquitous, powerful, and useful, is:

1) Unnecessarily complicated. Its like the English language. We think it simple, because we've learned it by rote, but anyone with an objective opinion (and therefore more valuable scientifically speaking) (i.e. a native non-English speaker) will tell you it makes little sense. Imagine how much faster infants would learn to speak if we used a language that was actually designed to be easy to learn ...

2) BASH's cryptic syntax make it look cool, but also make it esoteric, which is a terrible quality for any language to have, as it directly contradicts it purpose.

The PERFECT language would simple require to user to tell the computer what to do, and it would do it. Simple as that. However, BASH is an inadequate stopgap (it's not a good enough alternative in the meantime) Python is much closer, but it's a bit of a pain to write shell scripts in python.

Sometimes I wonder if shell scripts are even necessary, but they so often prove their use, that this though rarely lingers :P

To be honest, I was REALLY hoping someone would say:

"Hey, yeah, why don't you try TPSH (The Perfect Shell) ? Syntactically it's like python, but is semantically implemented via LISP and has features of both. The core functions basically form a wrapper for BASH while the rest incorporate other features like OOP and AOP and more!"

But that event is looking less and less likely ... so I might have to advance beyond basic BASH in exchange for my soul.

You write Python scripts, not shell scripts.

True.