1. Gawk in ALEPH Dror Berger - The National Library of Israel & IUCC (Inter-University Computation Centre) November 17, 20151Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger

2. The problem that led us to gawk We need to write programmes that will extend and improve the current capabilities of the libraries’ software (In this case, ALEPH). Library staff usually has no programmers or computer science graduates, and on the other hand, the institutions computation centers do not have library oriented personal. November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger2

3. The problem that led us to gawk We needed a programming language that can be maintained and manipulated, via simple cut- and-paste procedures, by library staff that has no formal programming education. November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger3

4. What is gawk Gawk is the GNU version of the commonly available UNIX awk program, a popular stream editor. An open source programme with a large developers community. Last version: 3.1.7 released on 23-Jul-2009 November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger4

5. Why gawk? Programs in awk are different from programs in most other languages, because awk programs are "data-driven": you describe the data you want to work with and then what to do when you find it. Most other languages are "procedural." You have to describe, in great detail, every step the program is to take. When working with procedural languages, it is usually much harder to clearly describe the data your program will process. For this reason, awk programs are often refreshingly easy to read and write. November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger5

6. Why gawk? Portable and standard (Exactly as Perl). Gawk interpreter makes it very easy to debug, even with no formal programming skills. Fast. Loads an array of 8 Million system numbers in less than 10 seconds. November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger6

7. Fields in awk November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger7

8. Fields in gawk - ALEPH November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger8

9. Fields in gawk - ALEPH November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger9

10. Higher level November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger10 This is as difficult as it gets, and still much more readable than Perl or Java.

11. What else do we do with gawk? Test and correct cataloguing records. Test and correct information stored in sequential Z records, such as Z30, Z305 etc… All text manipulation in programmes and services in our library environment. November 17, 2015Gawk in ALEPH - Dror Berger11