That does sound compelling, but I frequently enough have to work on embedded systems (often running busybox) where python isn't installed and available R/W storage space is measured in tens or hundreds of Kb.

I find that that is one more environment where awk scripting can get the job done, python/perl/php/etc just can't be introduced, bash can _sometimes_ get the job done if it doesn't have to spawn too many subprocesses, and C/other-compiled-options _might_ be able to help if I had some kind of build environment targeting the platform(s) in question and enough patience.

I'll keep an eye out for python with no extra dependency options on the platforms that can handle that though.