:Linux Gazette: Introduction to Shell Scripting--The Basics
Linux Gazette: Introduction to Shell Scripting--The Basics Apr 2, 2000, 20 :35 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (4416 reads) (Other stories by Ben Okopnik)
"Shell scripting is a fascinating combination of art and science that
gives you access to the incredible flexibility and power of Linux with very
simple tools."
"Linux - Unix in general - is not a warm and fuzzy,
non-knowledgeable-user oriented system. Rather than specifying exact
motions and operations that you must perform, it provides you with a myriad
of small tools which can be connected in a literally infinite number of
combinations, to achieve any result that is necessary..."
"... there [is] an enormous difference between blindly following the
rigid dictates of a standardized GUI and creating your own program, or
shell script, that performs exactly the functions you need in exactly the
way you need them done."
"Shell scripting is programming - but it is programming made easy, with
little, if any, formal structure. It is an interpreted language, with its
own syntax - but it is only the syntax that you use when invoking programs
from your command line; something I refer to as "recyclable knowledge".
This, in fact, is what makes shell scripts so useful: in the process of
writing them, you continually learn more about the specifics of your shell
and the operation of your system - and this is knowledge that truly pays
for itself in the long run as well as the short."
