learning VS pyp

> I too can never remember jq syntax when I need to. I usually just end up writing a Python script

Same here! That's why for small things I made pyxargs [1] to use python in the shell. In another thread I also just learned of pyp [2] which I haven't tried yet but looks like it'd be even better for this use case.

[1] https://github.com/elesiuta/pyxargs

[2] https://github.com/hauntsaninja/pyp

I have bookmarked/tried so many Python/Shell mashups over the years.

IMHO the following is about the only one that's tasteful and not going off the deep end: https://github.com/hauntsaninja/pyp

I wrote a similar tool a while back that lets you create your own "magic" variables. I use `f` all the time! https://github.com/hauntsaninja/pyp#pyp-lets-you-configure-y...

Thank you for the extensive and thoughtful comment! This does help clarify your approach quite considerably. I wonder, since you are hoping to attract collaborators, whether there is some kind of formal spec for the language somewhere? For example, you mentioned parallel efforts: suppose I wanted to write a port to pure C; is there any way, short of reading every one of your posts and trying to contain the whole language in my head at once, for me to know exactly what I need to implement?

Something I've been trying to figure out: what is the exact relationship at present between OSH and Oil? When you say "OSH" do you mean the language, or the shell itself "oil shell"? If Oil is not something I can download, why exactly does that `const v = max(1, 2)` statement work in osh? It's clearly not just a Bash implementation, it's got other features. Is that a subset of Oil's features? Which subset?

Since you're also interested in other shells, you might have a look at pyp [1]. It captures a lot of the way I personally would like to use some future shell. If the features of pyp were integrated into the shell itself, you wouldn't need an external command, you could just (for example) pipe the output of one program into a python-like statement that mangles the incoming strings in some way, and pipe that out to some xargs-like program to use in a subshell. (The fact that you apparently can't use the pipe in what Xonsh calls "Python mode" is for me the central limiting feature of that shell.)

[1] https://github.com/hauntsaninja/pyp

9. Pyp