Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pcwalton 1744 days ago
Modern BSDs, macOS, and Solaris certainly have Perl and Python. (iOS and Android don't, but they don't have awk either.) What other Unixes are you thinking of? AIX, HP/UX, IRIX, UnixWare, etc. should be considered retrocomputing at this point and not relevant to modern compatibility discussions.

Linux distros based on busybox, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, are a more compelling reason for considering awk than considerations involving other Unixes.
3 comments
comex 1743 days ago
When it comes to Python on macOS, the only version that’s installed by default is the deprecated copy of Python 2.7 that’s slated to be removed in the future. For Python 3, you need to install the developer tools. (/usr/bin/python3 ships with the OS, but is just a stub that runs the developer tools version if installed or prompts you to install it otherwise).

It’s not hard to install, but it’s not guaranteed to already be installed on every system.

link
bdk0 1744 days ago
You can install python and perl on BSDs, but its different than awk, where its part of the core OS and guaranteed to be there without needing to install extra stuff.
link
cogman10 1744 days ago
Wasn't awk added to android in 9?
link
Aptrug 1744 days ago
Yep, https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/mast...
link