Python/Unix Hybrid Demoed at PyCon (xon.sh)

A new shell "combines the Python language with features of Bash Unix and the fish and zsh shells," according to InfoWorld. An anonymous reader writes: Pronounced "conch," but spelled Xonsh, it runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X systems, bringing Python libraries to the command line -- for example, the ability to use regular expressions when globbing files. "The first thing you'll notice about Xonsh is that it's really meant to be used as a general-purpose shell," the lead developer explained in a presentation at PyCon. "But on the other hand, it really is Python, so you can do things like add two numbers together."

They're describing it as "a Python-ish, BASHwards-looking shell language and command prompt...a superset of Python 3.4+ with additional support for the best parts of shells that you are used to, such as Bash, zsh, fish, and IPython...the superglue that bonds Python to a command-line interface and other shells."

Comments

Re:Not excited

[DoofusOfDeath]

1. What is so awesome about adding two numbers in the shell?
2. In any case, bash can do it too -- try echo $((15+7)).
3. One of the selling points of bash is that it needs to be fast for power users, so it uses cd instead of change_directory(). One of the selling points of Python is that readability counts, so it would choose change_directory() over cd. How do you plan to reconcile the two approaches?

I haven't checked out Xonsh much yet, but I'm stoked if it provides a good hybrid of Bash and Python.

Lately I've done a lot of Bash scripting, and I've found myself wanting a few features from Python. The first that comes to mind is wanting Python's ability to have lists / dictionaries that can contain other lists / dictionaries. Bash's associative / indexed arrays are a great feature, but it's very inconvenient to compose them in such a manner, and that occasionally makes my life more difficult.

OTOH, I haven't wanted to migrate the scripting to Python, because I really like how easy it is to refine and reuse the same command back and forth between a Bash script and a Bash command-line.

If Xonsh can help in cases like mine, and it manages to gain widespread traction, I'll be stoked.

Re:Python

[fluffernutter]

I develop in python, java, and objective-c... you know what I hate more then python? Putting parenthesis around every single conditional statement. Once you work in python for awhile and go back, you start to notice how many brackets there are in the other languages.