Re: That's the unix way of doing things..
Shells are not just "interpreters". Shells are mostly designed, how their name imply, to allow for user interactions - their scripting was introduced to store list of commands you would have to type instead. Scripting was never meant to substitute proper programming, it's just a quick (and dirty) way to collect sequences of commands.
Thereby shells have some specific features to allow for easier keyboard interaction (when screens where not so common also). BASIC is another beast - it is designed to write programs, not as an interactive command processor for human interaction.
Chaining applications was also a common practice when too much code anda data can't simply be stored in the available RAM. Thereby you run a program, stored its result, remove the program from RAM, run the next one, and so on (sometimes, even swapping storage).
The problem is that lead to the creation of a religion. Because it was done that way back then (due to the hardware constraints of the time), it was the RIGHT WAY, and when the hardware constraint went away, narrow minded people didn't understand it was no longer the right way, and still repeat you today you still have to code like it was still 1970.
Guess they also wear elephant trousers and big collars shirts because that's the RIGHT WAY to dress.... drugs addiction and Che Guevara worshipping are already part of the picture. It's a cultural stance, not a technically sound one. Forty years too late...