[red-iron-pine]

bash and other sh related approaches have a lot of "foot guns". python, or powershell, or even C++ are often easier to read and follow.

> are often incredibly verbose and definitely not easier to read than a well written bash script

define well written -- getting into no true scotsman here.

bash is fine for what it was and what it did, and i'm glad to know enough sed and awk to be dangerous, but it's a PITA unless we're forced to use it