> So that will be my advice: the shell is fine for one-liners. Anything else, just use your favorite general purpose programming language...

Hhmmm. Seems to me that is the wrong conclusion. Seems the conclusion should be to know your tools and assumptions will bite you.

Sure bash has a lot of gottyas but it isn't "just" for one-liners. You need to be aware that it is what it is though.