Amalgate

Let's talk about programming languages for a second. Have you ever switched languages, and wished that the language you were using had a feature from another?

Well, that's certainly how I feel whenever I pick up bash. Bash is, in my humble opinion, the worst of many worlds of programming. Strange syntax rules, a noticeable lack of features, inconsistency...

That's where amalgate comes into play.

What does Amalgate do?

Amalgate adds new features to bash. To retain compatibility, all of the features that amalgate itself adds can generate a perfectly compatible bash source file. However, certain concepts (like classes) simply do not translate well to Bash, so it provides an interface for modules to interact with the amalgate source.

Amalgate Features

Import: Import will include a source file (usually another bash file) inline at the calling point. read() relies too much on filesystem structure. Import will properly include the file during transpilation.

Syntax

Amalgate commands go on their own line. The amalgate command (=) lets the reader know that what follows is a command. So, you'd call import like

myFunction(){}
=import mathFunctions.sh

Amalgate has a command, confusingly enough, called '='. This lets you access amalgate system commands and modules. So, for a module called 'profile', you'd call it (with arguments) like

myFunction(){}
== profile myFunction

You can call amalgate commands inline with ={.

myFunction(){$1 + ={== date todau "MM/DD/YYYY"}

You can use non-module functions (like import) inline, but it's rare to do something like that.

Example

mathFunctions.bash:

function add() { echo $(($1 + $2)) }

main.bash

=