writing shell scripts is zero fun. the bash syntax is a mess, error handling is difficult, and any script longer than a hundred lines is basically unreadable. but we keep writing bash scripts because they’re the right tool for the job and the job must be done.
amber aims to fix this pain by being a language that gives us a sane, readable syntax that transpiles into messy bash so we don’t have to write messy bash ourselves.
this post is a three-parter that will go over the basic features of amber from the perspective of those of us who actually want to use it. we’ll start with calling shell commands and handling errors, then look at loops and if statements, and finally investigate functions.
