Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 27th May 2008 13:08 UTC, submitted by Ward D
AWK is one of the most common UNIX tools to process text-based data in either files or datastreams. Written by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan, AWK "extensively uses the string datatype, associative arrays (that is, arrays indexed by key strings), and regular expressions." ComputerWorld interviewed Alfred Aho.
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Member since:
2005-11-16
So simple, yet so powerful.
Have you noticed that the program structure of DTrace in Solaris is also awk-like?
From dtrace_usenix.pdf :
" Each probe clause has the form:
probe-descriptions
/predicate/
{
action-statements
}
...
D uses a program structure similar to awk(1). "
It's just natural to write a program this way:
Match? Fire! Next.