I actually gave fish a try after you recommended it. I can't use it in my workflow :(. Virtualenv has a bash script to initiate the environment and fish's incompatibility with bash scripts makes it impossible for me to work with it.

virtualenv deployments come with a fish specific script, it is at `venv/bin/activate.fish`.

You can source it with `. venv/bin/activate.fish`

Awesome! thanks

Even so, the single most attractive trait of bash is that it ships with almost everything. If I have to write a script on a machine with no internet, then bash is the only option. This its strongest source of staying power.

You would likely have a regular sh, be it bash in "sh-mode" or a real sh, plus likely csh and maybe ksh. You'd probably also have awk, and maybe even perl.

perl is everywhere, but like python, it's power is in it's modules.

and those are not everywhere.