Regular Expressions on Under the Anvil https://blog.thetextsmith.com/tags/regular-expressions/ Recent content in Regular Expressions on Under the Anvil Hugo en-us Sun, 09 Aug 2026 06:36:30 +0200 Programming Perl — The Camel That Still Knows the Desert https://blog.thetextsmith.com/bookshelf/programming-perl-the-camel-that-still-knows-the-desert/ Sun, 09 Aug 2026 06:36:30 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/bookshelf/programming-perl-the-camel-that-still-knows-the-desert/ What kind of problems was Perl built to solve? Perl, just like awk, continues to thrive because it solves a particular class of problems exceptionally well. Find out from this week’s book review. Thinking in Transformations: Why Textsmiths Love Search-and-Replace 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. Why It's Difficult to Operate Without a Stream Editor 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. Before You Reach for sed: Master Bash Parameter Expansion 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. Is Perl Still Relevant? A Textsmith's Reflection https://blog.thetextsmith.com/reflections/is-perl-still-relevant/ Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:33:46 +0200 https://blog.thetextsmith.com/reflections/is-perl-still-relevant/ Perl is in an interesting position today. It is no longer the language that every system administrator or text-processing enthusiast is expected to know, yet many of the ideas we take for granted today—powerful regular expressions, concise text transformations, one-liners, and “glue” programming—owe a great deal to Perl. Rather than asking whether it is obsolete, perhaps the better question is: what role does Perl play in the modern textsmith’s toolbox?