Python as a scripting language. Alternative to bash script?

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <Xns9DA77F36B9F6EMithrandirIsAwesome at 80.93.112.4>, Mithrandir wrote:

> I think that Python "could" be a alternative to bash and have some
> advantages, but it's a long way off from being fully implemented.

Would you prefer to do the following sort of thing in Python or Bash?

       AudioParms = "-f s16le -ar 48000 -ac 2" # because I can't seem to pipe compressed audio
       ImportCmd = \
          (
                "ffmpeg -v 0 -i <(%(src_video)s)"
                " %(audio_parms)s -i <(%(src_audio)s)"
                " -vcodec copy -acodec %(audio_codec)s -y %(dstfile)s"
            %
                {
                    "src_video" :
                        "; ".join
                          (
                            [
                                    "ffmpeg -v 0 -i %(srcfile)s -f image2pipe -vcodec copy"
                                    " -y /dev/stdout"
                                %
                                    {"srcfile" : ShellEscape(SrcFile)}
                            for
                                SrcFile in SrcFiles
                            ]
                          ), # pipe through compressed video without recompression
                    "src_audio" :
                        "; ".join
                          (
                            [
                                    "ffmpeg -v 0 -i %(srcfile)s %(audio_parms)s -y /dev/stdout"
                                %
                                    {
                                        "srcfile" : ShellEscape(SrcFile),
                                        "audio_parms" : AudioParms,
                                    }
                            for
                                SrcFile in SrcFiles
                            ]
                          ),
                    "dstfile" : ShellEscape(DstFile),
                    "audio_parms" : AudioParms,
                    "audio_codec" : "mp2", # assumption!
                }
          )