Not really. Later on the book just ran out of line-matching examples to go through and started doing regular programming instead :P. When I actually write AWK code I rely on line-matching and using a variable to handle state.
Busybox has their own independent AWK implementation.
https://busybox.net/ https://frippery.org/busybox/
Also see the first edition of the AWK manual online here:
If we're counting minimalist implementations, there's micropython that even runs on microcontrollers that cost a less than 2 dollars.
I’m a big fan of Forth, but it’s not available everywhere. One has to adapt.
It does not mandate Perl or Python.
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/a...>
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/c...>
There are many systems which lack Perl or Python, but include awk.
You might be carrying an Android device at the moment --- if you drop to its default userland, that provides a bunch of utilities, including awk, via Busybox. But not, so far as I'm aware, either Perl or Python.
(You can of course install Termux which will then give you both Perl and Python, along with Node.js, ruby, and a whole slew of other scripting and compiled languages. But so long as we're considering stock installs, it's sed and awk.)
> Hey you should read the AWK book, it even says how to write a VM!
> Why would I ever want to use AWK for that?
> Well, the input is a text file with one space-delimited instruction per line.
> Hmm... You have a point.