> So I conclude that the choices are > > Perl > Python > Ruby > > If using Perl, we could easily restrict ourselves to > features of 5.8 or even older. With Python and especially Ruby, > I'd advocate requiring much more recent versions, due to their relative > immaturity.
Agreed. Consider that we do not have to use all the fancy unreadable stuff of Perl (e.g. lists of lists, which I never bothered learning...). We can start with a more-or-less direct translation of the shell script, without all the speed penalties of forking and with the more powerful Perl regexps. Paolo
