[assimpleaspossi]

You think awk would fit the list but then go on to show how useful it was and still is today.

I often read answers to questions all over the internet where awk is part of the solution. Mainly serious programmers using BSD and Linux.

[cturner]

My comment did not talk about where awk is useful today.

Unix gurus will recommend awk as a pattern matching and substitution tool.

But my comment was about awk the vanguard imperative scripting language. I don't know of anyone who recommends use of awk's imperative style over python in 2025.

As an exercise, I tried writing a simple roguelike in awk in an imperative style. Within twenty minutes, it felt obvious where perl came from.