Shell programming

• Unlike sed, the shell is a real programming language

• Not long ago Zach Holman wrote a cute little shell script called spark

           % spark 1 2 3 4 7 5 3 1
           ▂▃▄▅█▆▄▂

• Embed it in your prompt or whatever

• But its arithmetic was totally broken

• It didn't always make the bars the right height

• Problem: You need to do fraction arithmetic

• The shell doesn't have any

• expr uses only integers

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