[hrktb]

IMO your lesson is to get to define a problem simply enough that you can apply a simple solution. This is not a given and usually needs serious design and project management skills.

Otherwise even your simple solution would be drawn in "can you support multi-byte characters ? Do you handle non unicode stuff ? What if it leaks in your layers if code before reaching your awk library ?" and other problems that abound in most mildy complex projects.

[Annatar]

your lesson is to get to define a problem simply enough that you can apply a simple solution.

Hear hear! So true. The problem is that making complex things simple is extremely difficult.