When I write tools for the Unix command line, they're typically either shell scripts or Perl.

An article from IBM's developerWorks site has opened my eyes to the potential of Python for this purpose. The optparse library provides built-in parsing of command-line arguments, with automatic help display and error handling. The subprocess module handles system calls smoothly, and the ConfigParser module parses name=value config files.

I didn't know Python could do that stuff. Here's the article.

(That's your cue to tell me how your favorite language can do it better.)

See Also:

• How To: Embed Google Calendar On Your Desktop
• Unix Trivia: Know Your Profiles
• Cellular Secrets of Python Digestion