10.4 More Possibilities: Perl and Python

If shell script programming seems too limiting, you might want to learn Perl or Python. Like the shell, Perl and Python interpret script files full of commands. But these two programming languages have a steeper learning curve than the shell. Also, because you've already learned a fair amount about the shell and Unix commands by reading this book, you're almost ready to start writing shell scripts now; on the other hand, a programming language will take longer to learn. But if you have sophisticated needs, learning one of these languages is another way to use even more of the power of your Mac OS X system.