[jingo]

Best reply I've seen on HN in a long time.

Truth is I'd rather read someone else's shell script than someone else's C, python, ruby, javascript or other code. Not to say it still isn't painful reading; most scripts I see are nonsensically verbose. But it is a much less time-consuming read.

Unless, of course, it is written in a shell like Bash, i.e., one with too many extra features to keep track of. Like, say, exporting of functions, for example.