python_vs_shell

Eliminating the need to write shell-scripts is a side goal of protoprimer.

See also the motivation section in the main readme.md.

What are python advantages?

There are multiple advantages of python over shell scripts (e.g. bash):

• Test-ability - bash scripts are hardly test-able.

  There is simply not practice to write tests for bash scripts.

• Trace-ability - failures do not produce stack traces in bash.

  Lack of trace-ability and test-ability encourage excessive logging for bash scripts (including set -xv).

• More readable code in python than in shell scripts.

  Think of functions, classes, modules, ...

• Clean support for various data structures.

  Start with list, dict, ...

• Avoid initializing automatic error detection for sub-shell (e.g. set -euo pipefail).

  Execution of shell scripts (by default) allows undefined variables, failing commands, ...

• Better control of local versus global variables.

• No issues with return versus exit.

  When a script is source-d, one has to select return, otherwise, for a stand-alone script, exit must be used.

• Unpredictable alias-es set by user in bash.

  They can be ignored by command but that make such bash script even more cumbersome to write.

• Speed.

What are shell advantages?

Primarily WYSIWYG for CLI.

Essentially, a shell script is what a human would type interactively. This implies succinct syntax (and may seem helpful, but quickly becomes cryptic).