[jolmg]

Yup. Nearly everything has tradeoffs.

BTW, the problem I mentioned earlier can be avoided by using `< <()`:

  $ x=1
  $ seq 5 | while read n; do (( x++ )); done
  $ echo $x
  1
  $ while read n; do (( x++ )); done < <(seq 5)
  $ echo $x
  6

Almost makes me wonder what the benefit of preferring a pipe here is. I guess it's just about not having to specify what part of the pipeline is in the same shell.

[edgyquant]

It’s funny I’ve been using Linux for a decade and a half, professionally for about half that time, and yet I still go to python when arithmetic is involved. I’ve been learning a lot about the shell lately it’s like I did the bare minimum with bash just to be able to run programs and slightly automate things and it took this long for it to click with me that it’s a productive programming language in its own right (and probably faster than python.)

[yesenadam]

I use "python calc" for quick calculations at the command line:

  pc () { python3 -c "print($*)" ; } 

  $ pc 3.5**2.4
  20.219169193375105

Or "awk calc", which seems much faster: (and ^ and ** both work for powers)

  calc () { awk "BEGIN{print $*}" ; }

  $ calc 3.5**2.4
  20.2192

[chasil]

With the original Borne shell, the exper command was used for arithmetic.

The POSIX shell allows the $(( form for native shell arithmetic, but not the (( alternative found in bash and Korn.