Amber the programming language compiled to Bash, 0.5.1 release (docs.amber-lang.com)

submitted 5 days ago by lens0021@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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My primary use case for Amber is when I need to write a Bash script but don't remember the silly syntax. My most recent Bash mistake was misusing test -n and test -z. In Amber, I can just use something == "" or len(something) == 0

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[-] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 5 days ago

This is an interesting idea and from the looks of it well executed, but I am having trouble imagining a scenario were I would prefer to use Amber over a scripting language like Python. If your bash scripts are getting long enough to warrant the use of Amber you are probably already in a situation where you can justify installing Python.

[-] themoken@startrek.website 6 points 5 days ago

I agree, but I can envision scenarios where you are integrating into someone else's workflow/machine and they (or their build system etc.) are expecting a shell script. Python is ubiquitous but sometimes you just want to work like everything else.

[-] SinTan1729@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Also useful for scripts to be executed inside containers. Alpine doesn't have Python installed by default.

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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025

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