What kind of parsing do you think can be done in "a real programming language" that can't be done in bash?
I like objects and performance and abstraction and other things about other languages but bash has a _lot_ of parsing tools.
I like objects and performance and abstraction and other things about other languages but bash has a _lot_ of parsing tools.
Bash does actually have a fair amount of regex support built in too though it's not as well talked about.
Mine remains: that shell affords capabilities via utilities. Awk (again, with numerous implementations) also offers regex capabilities, some not offerred by sed, and missing a few.
When writing cross-platform scripting, adhering to common standards rises in importance. This is possible, if occasionally limiting.