Some things don’t change. Thirteen years ago I wrote: “If you use
awk
or want to learn how, then read this book.” True
then, and still true today.
Learning to use a programming language is about more than mastering
the syntax. One needs to acquire an understanding of how to use the features
of the language to solve practical programming problems. A focus of this
book is many examples that show how to use awk
.
Some things do change. Our computers are much faster and have more
memory. Consequently, speed and storage inefficiencies of a high-level
language matter less. Prototyping in awk
and then
rewriting in C for performance reasons happens less, because more often the
prototype is fast enough.
Of course, there are computing operations that are best done in C or
C++. With gawk
4.1 and later, you do not have to choose
between writing your program in awk
or in C/C++.
You can write most of your
program in awk
and the aspects that require C/C++ capabilities can
be written in C/C++, and then the pieces glued together when the
gawk
module loads the C/C++ module as a dynamic plug-in.
Chapter 16
has all the details, and, as
expected, many examples to help you learn the ins and outs.
I enjoy programming in awk
and had
fun (re)reading this book. I think you will, too.
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