Bash via Transpiler

It is no secret that we often use and abuse bash to write things that ought to be in a different language. But bash does have its attractions. In the modern world, it is practically everywhere. It can also be very expressive, but perhaps hard to read.

We’ve talked about Amber before, a language that is made to be easier to read and write, but transpiles to bash so it can run anywhere. The FOSDEM 2026 conference featured a paper by [Daniele Scasciafratte] that shows how to best use Amber. If you prefer slides to a video, you can read a copy of the presentation.

For an example, here’s a typical Amber script. It compiles fully to a somewhat longer bash script:

import * from "std/env"
fun example(value:Num = 1) {
if 1 > 0 {
let numbers = [value, value]
let sum = 0
loop i in numbers {
sum += numbers
[i] }
echo "it's " + "me"
return sum
}
fail 1
}

echo example(1) failed {
echo "What???"
is_command("echo")
}

The slides have even more examples. The language seems somewhat Python-like, and you can easily figure out most of it from reading the examples. While bash is nearly universal, the programs a script might use may not be. If you have it, the Amber code will employ bshchk to check dependencies before execution.

According to the slides, zsh support is on the way, too. Overall, it looks like it would be a great tool if you have to deploy with bash or even if you just want an easier way to script.

We’ve looked at Amber before. Besides, there are a ton of crazy things you can do with bash.

hackaday.com/2026/02/12/bash-v…