Shell has a lot of stuff going for it too, though:
-> REPL essentially for free (the language IS a REPL)
-> enormous installed base
-> No compilation (well, unless you have something--like autotools--using shell as essentially a transpilation target)
-> No need for "libraries" in most cases: the ordinary CLI that $vendor already ships can be used right away, with no need for a custom SDK for whatever "real" language you would otherwise be using. For example, if you are already familiar with the "aws" CLI program, it's trivial to treat it as an "API" for a quick shellscript instead of needing to dig into the boto3 docs to do something equivalent the "right" way.
-> Pretty good integration with standard *nix facilities (redirecting STD{ERR,OUT}, checking existence of files/pipes, checking/setting exit codes, etc.)
-> REPL essentially for free (the language IS a REPL)
-> enormous installed base
-> No compilation (well, unless you have something--like autotools--using shell as essentially a transpilation target)
-> No need for "libraries" in most cases: the ordinary CLI that $vendor already ships can be used right away, with no need for a custom SDK for whatever "real" language you would otherwise be using. For example, if you are already familiar with the "aws" CLI program, it's trivial to treat it as an "API" for a quick shellscript instead of needing to dig into the boto3 docs to do something equivalent the "right" way.
-> Pretty good integration with standard *nix facilities (redirecting STD{ERR,OUT}, checking existence of files/pipes, checking/setting exit codes, etc.)