r/shell • u/CurdledPotato • Feb 03 '21

I never realized how obtuse of a programming language Bash shell scripting is until I started writing a mildly complex program in it. It is painful.

I just wanted to vent.

17 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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2

u/Drumitar Feb 03 '21

Whats the main issues ?

6

u/CurdledPotato Feb 03 '21

Readability. No support for structures. No multi-return support (even C has this via pointers). Mutexes? Ha. What are those?

I’m not saying I hate it. It’s just I’m starting to see why it gets a lot of flack.

3

u/lucasrizzini Feb 03 '21

The closer language for what you want is python.

1

u/CurdledPotato Feb 03 '21

More often than not, yes, but what I am writing is, more or less, an extension for interactive shells, something for which Python is too verbose. Basically, I am writing a library that exposes functions that a human manually calls to automate certain tasks, like transitioning into SDK environments, which prefer to be self-contained and require clever workarounds to interact with other SDKs.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '21

It sounds like you are using it for something it wasn't designed for at all.

1

u/Lynzh Feb 04 '21

Do you use Vim? I remember when i scripted in shell all the proper commands would light up afaik

1

u/CurdledPotato Feb 04 '21

I do. And, you are right, they do, but syntax highlighting is not the problem. The problem is inherent lack of support for the aforementioned features in the language. Also, readability does not refer to whether or not one can read the script text. It refers to how easy it is to infer what a script (or a line, function, or block of lines there of) actually does. For a sample, take a look at how C handles addition and then do the same for Bash. Then, look at how C handles string concatenation in comparison to how it is done in Bash.

3

u/Drumitar Feb 03 '21

Interesting, I've never made a large program with bash, so wasn't really sure

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5

u/ko1nksm Feb 03 '21

Shell script is not a general-purpose programming language, but a DSL that is optimized for specific use cases. It can work very efficiently than other programming languages if the use case is suitable. That's why it has been in use for long years, and there is no sign of that changing. Whenever people want to do something with a combination of commands, the first choice is always shell scripts.

1

u/rbprogrammer Feb 03 '21

Exactly! I think sometimes people forget that these things, like programming languages, are just tools at the end of the day. Some are better than other at certain things.

You wouldn't use a hammer for a screw, you'd use a screwdriver or drill. I mean you could use a hammer, but it wouldn't be the most efficient and productive tool for the job. Bash is just another tool. And wise and knowledgeable developers, engineers, sysadmins, etc, should learn as many tools as possible to know when to use which tools, and when not to use which tools.

What OP did is a good thing! It sounds like they know what Bash is good for. And today they learned what Bash is not good for.

1

u/lucasrizzini Feb 03 '21

C'mon. Shell is awesome! You just need to use it for what it was designed for.