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FFmpeg, curl, and NumPy epitomizes the concept of “Do One Thing and Do it Well.”

What exactly is ffmpeg's one thing?

Or curl's for that matter?

Curl does loads of stuff, supports so many protocols - HTTP, LDAP, FTP etc.

CLI video editing

Make web requests

Curl's "one thing" is to get files from the network in every conceivable way possible. Ffmpeg's is to convert media files between every conceivable set of formats possible.

ImageMagick and gnuplot.

GraphicsMagick is like ImageMagick but much more sane & performant.

http://www.graphicsmagick.org/

+ jq, youtube-dl

I'd like to add exiftool to this list.

jq is a neat young one on this list I think

also at the metalevel, gnu parallel

I'd add Pandoc to all the ones mentioned in sibling comments.