SquirrelShell - a cross-platform alternative to (e.g.) bash and cmd.exe

Until system scripts start being written in alternative shells (which will never happen), I wouldn't bother learning any other shell than /bin/sh (and, by extension, bash). For more complex applications, stick to Python.

Also, I never really understand why everyone wants to tout the "cross-platform" nature of their applications. You always run up against OS differences fairly quickly, negating any supposed "cross-platform" benefits. Especially if you want hooks into the OS (and who doesn't want OS hooks?)

Cross-platform apps that do provide hooks into the OS are excepted: those are indeed useful: Python, etc.

I don't understand why I would want C++ syntax when I could have python syntax for the same task? I checked and the python code for that matrix multiply is significantly shorter and arguably more readable, and that's without making a Matrix class!

Via: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-spunix_squi...

I think I'll play around with this over the weekend (well, if I have time for it), seems like it could come in really handy.

I can use alternative shells 'til the cows come home, but until everybody else that I work with abandons cmd.exe it's not going to be all that useful. For now I'm stuck with bad cmd scripts and python (which I love).

It appears too awkward to use as an interactive shell, and looks more like an alternative to perl or python --- what advantages does it have over them?

The emacs shell is also cross-platform and provides the basic shell commands. It can be customized easily with pieces of elisp.