Rev as Linux Shell Script

[Bill Andersen]

I'm sorry this is so long winded.  I'm hoping it will help you understand my motivation...

I am a necessity programer.  I don't sell my programs, I program as a systems analyst to achieve results for my employer.

I have developed fairly complex solutions in FileMaker and I can program in VB, Lua and I've even written a few "C" utilities (Text manipulation).
I've written with PHP and Perl for web.  And, as part of my job, I have to create reports from a legacy Cobol system using ODBC and Linux shell scripting.

The problem is, I really don't know any one of these programming languages "fluently" :)

When I switch between them (sometimes within the same day), I'm always having to get out a book and refresh my memory about certain syntax.  Sure, I can remember most of the basics of program flow (If, then, else) between each one, but even then I sometimes type it wrong and have to go back and edit after it gets an error.

SO, I thought I would try finding a language I can can call the "one programming language I'll ever need".  Along comes Rev (a couple of years ago for me) and I really felt like it would be a good candidate.  I can program for Mac, Win, Web, Linux, Mobile devices... you guys know all that.

However, a CONSIDERABLE amount of my programming is in Unix Shell script.  We have a legacy accounting system running on SCO Openserver (We are changing over to Linux in 2011).  I have a full EDI interface to one of our suppliers written in "bash" shell script AND I NEED it to be a shell type process in order for it to work for me. (nightly cron, headless computer, etc.)

SO!!!  The 'last' feature of Rev/LiveCode I need to be able to address is the ability to run LIKE a Linux shell script.

I've read how to get the runtime working as a CGI and played around enough that I 'can' (seemingly) make it work from a shell with the "#!revolution -ui" declaration on the first line.  However, when I get to some of the higher level features (FTP, ODBC, etc) I start getting errors.  I was researching how to possibly resolve these issues (need libraries, etc) when I found that Rev 3.5 is the last version to support the ability to run as a CGI.

Now, my questions...

1) Am I dreaming?  Should I just move to Perl or something else and forget about Rev as a shell language?

2) I know LiveCode 4.5 can't do the CGI.  Would it work for a shell script (some UI/Graphical features obviously not available)

3) If so, can someone point me to some documentation on how to set it up correctly.

4) My first test was to try FTPing a file (needed for EDI) and I get errors when it can't locate libURLftpUploadFile.
   Where is this library and where "should" I put it on the Linux box?

5) I've got an Enterprise License.  Is this in violation of my license in any way?

Thanks

Bill