<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 9 September 2011 13:00, Simon Hobson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:linux@thehobsons.co.uk">linux@thehobsons.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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At the moment I've been learning to do bash scripts<br>
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Ahh, been "bash"ing myself most of this week. Brushing up on the small print difference between ( ... ) and { ... }, and introducing myself to the ${!name} syntax for variable indirection which has vastly helped my latest little bit of code.<br>
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A lot of people turn their noses up at shell scripting and will tell you you need to learn a "proper" language (usually Perl) - just don't listen to them.</blockquote><div><br>See, sometimes learning a proper language can help do certain things, i.e. a full singing all dancing interface... however other times its easier just to make a bash script, because all your wanting to do already exists in several, well designed, individual tools that linux/gnu have provided us over the years. In fact I know many people who make bash scripts, or use linux/gnu tools, and then wrote up an interface in python to use said scripts - just so it looked nicer for the user... sometimes this is all you need! Why re-write something that already does the job, and does the job well! For example `grep`, I don't think I would even TRY to recreate that, there's no need... or `sed`... `wget`... `lsof`... `find`... etc... these tools are fantastic, people should use them! I mean, many before us have spent years making and perfecting them, why let them go to waste. So yeah, I fully agree with you - never listen to someone who says "learn a proper language" - scripting is there to help people, why should we deny them that right as linux users.<br>
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Actually I'm down towards Barrow. Funny, but it's less miles to Carlisle than Manchester - but it seems a lot longer ! If anyone does want to car-share, I'm open to that.<br>
Same applies if anyone fancied going to ManLUG.</blockquote><div><br></div><div>Manchester is a lot further away from me to be honest, so would be a pain to get down there... also, Barrow isn't that far away... I've went there and back a few times... think the main thing is that you have that lovely road that goes across (fantastic view of the river/trees/lakes/etc)... and then after you've got the boring M6 up (Carlisle) or down (Manchester). So I know what you mean by it feeling like its a lot longer than it is.</div>
</div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Regards,<div>Haz</div><div><br></div><div>Blog: <a href="http://www.hazsoft.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.hazsoft.co.uk/</a></div><div>Lauchpad: <a href="https://launchpad.net/~hazrpg" target="_blank">https://launchpad.net/~hazrpg</a></div>
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