[Info-vax] Suggestion: Enhance DCL to support proper escape quoting.

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-01-20, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/20/22 2:17 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-01-20, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 1/20/22 1:31 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> On 2022-01-19, Jan-Erik Söderholm <jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> If the shell is that important for a platforms success or failure,
>>>>> Linux whould have been dead by now. A more user-unfriendly interface
>>>>> is hard do find.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What about JCL ? :-)
>>>>
>>>> Bash is cryptic, but it is also powerful.
>>>
>>> What's cryptic about bash?
>>>
>> 
>> When you start doing serious scripting with bash it can become cryptic
>> but at the same time, it is also a powerful shell.
>> 
>
> I say it again, What is cryptic about bash?
> Show me one.
>

Basically, the test syntax in control blocks when you start using it
a lot and especially when constructing complex tests. The one letter
symbols preceeded by a $ that make up the special parameters are not
the most readable either.

It would be nice if the test syntax was more conventional, such as
how DCL does it.

OTOH, bash has so much more functionality than DCL, especially when
using it interactively and its cleaner than DCL when escaping input.

It's just a pity bash scripts are not as readable as some scripting
languages that are not Unix shell based. OTOH, it would be nice if
DCL had the proper looping constructs and interactive functionality
that bash does.

The Unix shell environments were created when terseness was required
for multiple reasons, but to me, long-term readability of your code
and scripts is much more important than saving a few characters and
a little bit of time when creating them in the first place.

An ideal shell would be something that looks loosely like DCL but has
the power of bash, has all the bash structured mechanisms, and all the
bash interactive functionality.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.