Shells are two things
Maybe I'm missing something, but it has always seemed to be that people who complain about shell scripts do not approach shell scripting the way they approach any other programming language. By this I mean that they seem to actively resist the idea that they need to learn the language to get the most out of it.<p>One of my early jobs involved maintaining a pile of shell scripts that were part of automating a publishing system pipeline. So I picked up a couple of suggested books and learned everything I could about shell scripting. I quickly grew to enjoy working with shell scripts for automation.<p>Yes, there are quirks and oddities in shell scripting but the language is very well document and good practices and style guides have been around for ages.<p>Would you expect to understand any language without studying it first?