Xref: utzoo comp.bugs.4bsd:1338 comp.unix.wizards:17287
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!convex!tchrist@convex.UUCP|
From: tchrist@convex.UUCP| (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: csh problem involving nested ifs?
Keywords: csh, bug, nested if
Message-ID: <1395@convex.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jul 89 02:17:45 GMT
References: <685@wuphys.UUCP| <2974@helios.ee.lbl.gov| <4948@ficc.uu.net| <7293@cbmvax.UUCP|
Sender: tchrist@convex.UUCP
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.UUCP (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Technical Assistance Center, Richardson, TX
Lines: 24

In article <7293@cbmvax.UUCP| grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes:
|In article <4948@ficc.uu.net| peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
|| Basically, it is undesirable to use the 'C' shell for any complicated
|| scripts... or any scripts at all other than .cshrc and .login.

sigh.  i used to disbelieve this.  i've learned the hard way.  it's
more true that not true.

|This is a fairly widely held viewpoint, but when you get down to it,
|neither the bourne shell, nor c-shell provide very elegant programming
|languages.  C-shell does allow "prettier code", but the inconsistancies [sic]
|will nip you from time to time.  Bourne shell scripts do have the
|major advantage of being transportable back into the USG world, which
|may or may not matter for the task at hand.

This is also so.   That's why where I used to write shell scripts with
reams of embedded awk and sed calls, I now use perl, another wonderful
piece of Larry Wall-ware.  It's a real programming language, optimized
for sysadmin tasks.  If you haven't looked at it, consider doing so.  
And it runs on a googol of architectures, thanks to a lot of work 
towards this goal and his metaconfig program.  Try it, you'll like it.


--tom