From: Gregory Seidman <gsslist+ruby@...>
Date: 2006-05-04T22:34:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby equivalent to simple awk program

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 10:22:16PM +0900, Bil Kleb wrote:
} I found this awk snippet in news:comp.lang.fortran this
} morning, and it made me realize that I don't use Ruby as a
} *nix filter as often as I probably should because I couldn't
} duplicate the capability in "about 10 seconds":
[...]
}   { array[n++]=$0;}
} 
}   END {
}      while(n-->0) print array[n];
}      }
} 
}  This took about 10 seconds to write and worked the
}  first time.

I have gotten pretty good with Ruby and I *can* duplicate this in about 10
seconds:

input = (ARGV.length>0) ? File.new(ARGV[0]) : $stdin
arr = []
input.each_line { |line| arr << line }
arr.reverse_each { |line| puts line }

That said, I'd be inclined to do it in awk. (Or I'd use tail -r on systems
that support it, but that doesn't seem to include the GNU tools on Linux.)
Ultimately, use the best tool for the job. If it's a short script in awk
and that's what comes to mind, use awk. If you find yourself jumping
through hoops working it out in awk, you'll probably have better success in
Ruby. If you find yourself trying Perl before Ruby, however, seek
psychiatric help immediately :)

} Later,
} Bil
--Greg