[raphcohn]

shell script and a modern language like Python or Ruby have different use cases. Both have expressiveness, and power, and all, including the shell, very different applicability.

This project is far from a toy; there's a complete MQTT client written in it, bish-bosh[1], and swaddle (see comment below). I wouldn't build a webserver in it, but I would build command line wrappers of all those REST APIs out there so I don't have to install gems and eggs and whatever else to just get stuff done. shellfire is minimally dependent.

shellfire exists because installing Ruby and Python and all their dependencies is simply not an option for minimal bare metal servers and routers. Because there are far too many 'toy' shell scripts out there that aren't robust. Because the shell is the glue we need for out big ticket applications. Because I really loathe having to depend a VM configured and setup and snapshotted.

Performance is not a goal, not should it be for any scripting language. If you need performance, write in C or perhaps Java, although V8 is getting closer all the time.

And there is not dependency. shellfire deliberately discourages the model of 'install framework in /usr/lib'. It just doesn't work. But it does support working nicely with git-based dependencies as you develop; you can even deploy as nothing more than a git export, if you so choose.

[1] https://github.com/raphaelcohn/bish-bosh