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Master Foo and the Shell Tools
A Unix novice came to Master Foo and said: “I am confused. Is it not the Unix
way that every program should concentrate on one thing and do it well?”
Master Foo nodded.
The novice continued: “Isn't it also the Unix way that the wheel should not be
reinvented?”
Master Foo nodded again.
“Why, then, are there several tools with similar capabilities in text
processing: sed, awk and Perl? With which one can I best practice the Unix way?
”
Master Foo asked the novice: “If you have a text file, what tool would you use
to produce a copy with a few words in it replaced by strings of your choosing?”
The novice frowned and said: “Perl's regexps would be excessive for so simple a
task. I do not know awk, and I have been writing sed scripts in the last few
weeks. As I have some experience with sed, at the moment I would prefer it. But
if the job only needed to be done once rather than repeatedly, a text editor
would suffice.”
Master Foo nodded and replied: “When you are hungry, eat; when you are thirsty,
drink; when you are tired, sleep.”
Upon hearing this, the novice was enlightened.
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Master Foo and the Old Hand Master Foo and the Nervous
Novice