Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!newsfeed.kamp.net!newsfeed.kamp.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Jens Schweikhardt Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer,comp.programming.contests Subject: Re: The First Pure Shell Contest (PUSH): relativepath Date: 19 Aug 2011 19:23:06 GMT Lines: 38 Sender: Jens Schweikhardt Message-ID: <9b7rgqFiseU2@mid.individual.net> References: <9b7kg7F3njU1@mid.individual.net> <87pqk18byo.fsf@sapphire.mobileactivedefense.com> X-Trace: individual.net fD2knLIJZLsl7egAdvS+dw0erf/ZqUB13tPwSRvwN/kfqJWfh8 X-Orig-Path: not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:Tj6HRtaFiIU298aGIyZnzzzqN0A= User-Agent: tin/1.9.6-20101126 ("Burnside") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/9.0-CURRENT (i386)) Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.unix.shell:1721 comp.unix.programmer:1161 comp.programming.contests:12 In comp.unix.programmer Rainer Weikusat wrote: # Jens Schweikhardt writes: # #> The First Pure Shell Contest (PUSH) #> #> == Motivation == #> #> The shell is not known for powerful string processing. Seasoned #> programmers use various combinations of sed, awk, cut and others to #> perform the more sophisticated transformations, or sacrifice portability #> by using their shell's extensions, like arrays. But calls to external #> utilities and use of shell extensions are often not needed. Knowing what #> the POSIX shell can do may turn a slow non-portable script into a #> blazingly fast and portable hacker's delight. The goal is to show the #> absurdity of forking and nonportable constructs when a nice and small #> pure shell solution solves the problem just as well. # # I spent some thoughts on this because I was interested in at least # having a general idea how a solution could look like. OTOH, the reason # why I work in miserably paid programming jobs is essentially because I # enjoy solving software problems a lot more than dicksizing contests. Well, this is a badly paid contest :-) No prize money. People are in it, I hope, just for the fun of it. I certainly am. In days of yore I've been participating in the IOCCC and it was fun to be creative, cram every last bit of functionality in a limited number of bytes. Of course everybody's free to just sit and wait what the result are and then comment like Waldorf and Statler. Regards, Jens -- Jens Schweikhardt http://www.schweikhardt.net/ SIGSIG -- signature too long (core dumped)