Re: [dev] [PATCH] sbase: add cut

From: Uriel <uriel_AT_berlinblue.org>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 22:13:05 +0200

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 3:18 PM, Martin Kopta <martin_AT_kopta.eu> wrote:
> On 08/01/2012 03:09 PM, Kurt H Maier wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 01, 2012 at 08:58:00AM -0400, Niki Yoshiuchi wrote:
>>>
>>> Why would you use awk or Perl when you have the best programming language
>>> available: Ruby?
>>> On Aug 1, 2012 8:55 AM, "Martin Kopta" <martin_AT_kopta.eu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 08/01/2012 02:36 PM, Uriel wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Use awk.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Use Perl.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>> I hereby declare this mail thread a disaster area of top-posting and
>> language fanboyism and request immediate dispatch of the vans.
>>
>> Also, I'm really curious why people use cut when awk exists.
>
>
> $ du -b /usr/bin/cut /usr/bin/gawk /opt/plan9/bin/awk
> 38600 /usr/bin/cut
> 400212 /usr/bin/gawk
> 105700 /opt/plan9/bin/awk

You don't mention if they are statically or dynamically linked.

> Why would I use awk of which I don't remember syntax, when I could often do
> with trustworthy cut easily? Seriously, apart from '{print $1}' and doing
> sums and stuff, I don't know awk. I don't want to. It is weird intermezzo
> between simple cut/sed/.. and almighty perl. Never understood awk users.

Awk is so simple that there is simply no excuse for not knowing it
properly, if you use Unix you should know awk.

Also The Awk Programming Language is one of the best technical books
ever written, and everyone who uses Unix should have read it.

Uriel
Received on Wed Aug 01 2012 - 22:13:05 CEST