I'm writing to people I found in recent Changelogs for the Gawk project, in the hope that some of you would like to offer information on the question: "Why is awk still widely used?" Perl was designed partly as a replacement for awk and other common shell utilities. Many other scripting languages with more general application have arisen since then. So why awk?
Please excuse the intrusion. I assume you are in the Changelog because you care about awk, so by spending a few minutes helping me with the article you may be able to promote the language.
My basic questions are:
* Do you use awk for new projects (not just to maintain legacy projects)?
* What are the advantages of awk over more recent scripting tools (performance, etc.)?
* What are some interesting recent awk-based tools that are worth mentioning in the article?
* What are your favorite new features over the past decade of development on Gawk or other variants?
I myself used awk for a few projects many years ago. As an editor at O'Reilly, I also helped Arnold Robbins on some gawk-related projects and other books. He suggested I check the Changelogs for awk users.
--
Andy
preferred pronouns: he, him, his