https://blog.thetextsmith.com/categories/text-processing/ Recent content in Text-Processing on Under the Anvil Hugo en-us Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:29:01 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/the-unix-view-of-text-files-are-streams-not-pages/ Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:29:01 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/the-unix-view-of-text-files-are-streams-not-pages/ Many people learn the Unix slogan “everything is a file.” That’s true, but I almost think the more profound slogan is: “Everything is a stream waiting to be read or written.” This last of our three-part series on working with streams demonstrates why it is appropriate to adopt the stream mentality rather than the page mentality when working with files. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/thinking-in-transformations-why-textsmiths-love-search-and-replace/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 07:58:28 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/thinking-in-transformations-why-textsmiths-love-search-and-replace/ One of the greatest changes that happens when someone becomes a textsmith is not learning a new command. It is learning a new way of thinking. This second of the three-part series on working with streams delves into the psychology of a textsmith. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/why-it-s-difficult-to-operate-without-a-stream-editor/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 06:46:57 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/why-it-s-difficult-to-operate-without-a-stream-editor/ This post is the first of the three-part series on stream editing: but what does it mean to work with streams? This is where understanding its key editor comes into play. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/before-you-reach-for-sed-master-bash-parameter-expansion/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:28:53 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/before-you-reach-for-sed-master-bash-parameter-expansion/ One of the habits that gradually changes a person’s shell scripting style is discovering that Bash can manipulate text on its own. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/awk-the-secret-arsenal-of-a-textsmith/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 20:22:42 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/awk-the-secret-arsenal-of-a-textsmith/ When everyone else sees a paragraph, AWK sees a database. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/the-heat-of-the-campfire/ Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:13:15 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/text-processing/the-heat-of-the-campfire/ The value of treasuring one’s tools is not in the venom one spits against those who do not use them, rather it is in the satisfaction one gets and the productivity he reaps from them.