https://blog.thetextsmith.com/tags/functions/ Recent content in Functions on Under the Anvil Hugo en-us Thu, 30 Jul 2026 06:35:01 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/the-workshop/programming-as-composition/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 06:35:01 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/the-workshop/programming-as-composition/ Most programming books begin with variables, loops, and functions. A textsmith, however, encounters programming from the opposite direction: composition. Before writing a single if statement, they are already composing grep, sort, awk, sed, pandoc, and dozens of other tools into something larger. By the time they sit down to learn a programming language, they have already been programming—they simply didn’t call it that. https://blog.thetextsmith.com/tools-of-the-trade/the-case-for-small-tools/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:10:33 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/tools-of-the-trade/the-case-for-small-tools/ Every program is a set of functions that cooperate to produce the desired result. Did you ever consider how your computer makes it possible for you to craft complete programs on-the-fly through its small utilities?