At 17:32 March 23, 2025 yargo said:
> These days, my coding is mostly in scripts: [da]sh (I try
> not to use bash, as I want to keep my scripts portable,
> and on non-Linux systems, bash is not that widespread),
> awk (and a bit of gawk, because that does have interesting
> networking abilities), sed etc. I like to "live off the
> land", and these scripting languages tend to be available
> almost everywhere I have access.
The phrase "live off the land" struck me.
Yes, live off the land. Give up on installation and
customization. Assume your environment has all the tools
and support you need. Your task is to figure out how to
make best use of what you've already got.
At NASA, they call it "in-situ resource utilization". In
the arts, they call it "bricolage". Improvise. Adapt.
Overcome. Make it up. Make do.
Any Unix machine is a world-class programming and
text-processing environment right out of the box. Instead
of wasting time trying to choose the perfect language or
library or framework, start with what you already have.
The most valuable and exotic tool you will ever own is your
mind, and the most advanced application you can install on
it is your cunning and resourcefulness.
