script code generation

[Duggle]

Following on from this discussion some time ago:

I'm wondering whether perl is still the recommended language for such a purpose. What about python, or any others?

The M4 language is pretty archaic (could be called a "dead" language). It has served it's purpose but to continue working with it seems a bit naff when I could learn something with a whole lot more potential. For example it cannot do things which then require external executables such as sed and dos batch files etc. Gets messy. I'm imagining something that would make working with large configuration projects more manageable plus be cross platform...