Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Software Engineer to Novelist: Writing a Book Like Coding
I just published my first book, Means and Motive. ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYCZJVGX ) As a software engineer, I approached writing like a software project. I used familiar tools (Emacs and HTML) for the primary writing. I built my own tool (EPublish) to transform the HTML manuscript into an .epub file, the source for the ebook version. And I wrote shell scripts to reliably and repeatably transform the .epub version into PDF files for the printed editions. I wrote 'design' and 'architecture' docs, describing the world, key actors, and timelines. I kept a task list of…
A software engineer documents his approach to writing his debut novel "Means and Motive" by applying development practices to fiction writing. He used Emacs and HTML for manuscript composition, built a custom tool… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Get published. Get paid. Learn how to craft and publish technical articles with structured advice and expert interviews.
2020 · philipkiely.com · its alternatives →
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https://the-pocket.github.io/Tutorial-Codebase-Knowledge/
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey HN, I just wanted to share that after five months of intense work and countless caffeine-fueled writing sessions, "Master Software Architecture: A Pragmatic Guide" is now available. Writing this book was a crazy time. I entirely focused on it, and it took exactly 753 hours of writing, editing, and image editing & resizing(!) until the premiere. Yes, the last one (images) was a killer. If you ever think about writing a book, reserve a lot of time for it unless someone else does it for you. As a result, I am handing you the nearly 400-page book. It is a guide that will help you connect all…
2024 · leanpub.com · its alternatives →
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GitBook is a knowledge platform that connects your docs, product and users, answers user questions, and identifies knowledge gaps. Docs-as-code support & AI insights included.
2014 · gitbook.io · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! I wrote a book on programming called The Elements of Code. I put the entire book online here: https://elementsofcode.io/ When mentoring (usually new) programmers, I noticed there were a few common mistakes that seemed to account for about 80% of the complexity in their code. I couldn’t find a concise guide to fixing those mistakes, so I decided to write one. The title is an homage to The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, which is the classic guide for communicating well using prose. That guide is quite tactical in nature, and I wanted to parallel its focus in The…
2021 · pragprog.com · its alternatives →
- 6IW
The book page links to a blog post that explains how I got about it (and has a link to sample content), but the TL&DR is that I could not find a lot of books that were on "our" history _and_ were larded with technical details. So I set about writing one, and some five years later I'm happy to share the result. I think it's one of the few "computer history" books that has tons of code, but correct me if I'm wrong (I wrote this both to tell a story and to learn :-)). My favorite languages are Smalltalk and Lisp, but as an Emacs user, I've been using the latter for much longer and for my…
Feb 2026 · berksoft.ca · its alternatives →
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Hey HN, I want to share a personal project: I made a tiny pen-plotted book for my wife. I did everything myself—drawings (with some help from Midjourney), plotting, cutting, and binding. I even used a 3D printer to make a helper tool. It's absolutely over-engineered, but I enjoyed it a lot. Multi-disciplinary projects, especially those with a physical output, are a lot of fun for me. The post covers the process in detail, but if you're interested in anything specific, let me know. Cheers!
2025 · muffinman.io · its alternatives →
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I authored and developed an interactive children's book about entrepreneurship and money management. The journey started with Twinery, the open-source tool for making interactive fiction, discovered right here on HN. The tool kindled memories of reading CYOA style books when I was a kid, and I thought the format would be awesome for writing a story my kids could follow along, incorporating play money to learn about transactions as they occurred in the story. Twinery is a fantastic tool, and I used it to layout the story map. I really wanted to write the content of the story in Emacs and Org…
2025 · tendollaradventure.com · its alternatives →
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Prosed▲155Go from newsletters & podcasts to published manuscript
May 2026 · tryprosed.com · its alternatives →
- 11WB
2020 · builderbook.org · its alternatives →
- 12WA
Notes about creative coding on the Web.
2022 · garden.bradwoods.io · its alternatives →
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Hi HN. I built 1667 for my own fiction work and now use it each day. This probably has a limited audience. Maybe an audience of one... Why a terminal interface for story writing? I'm a dev. I like to use terminals for a lot of stuff. Most WebUIs feel off to me. That's the only reason. One thing that bothers me about writing in existing tools is that they don't fit the way I write. The mental model of my story is a tree. I try many takes usually continue with just one, but sometimes I want to try an alternate route and see where this goes. And that can branch again in many places. See what…
Aug 2026 · 1667.ai · its alternatives →
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SourcePilot▲158It’s been a while since I’ve started to write a book . The process of creation of it has not been easy , first because I’m not a writer , I’ve created well though out internet posts here and there, which ended up creating my first book. It was a good experience , but then I’ve started to think that a book that just gathered my thoughts online it’s not entirely “writing” a book , I needed more. And than I’ve opened google docs and start typing. Then I started to figure out what I wanted to write: should it be a fantasy story, a self-biography, or an observation of the world? I believe most…
Nov 2025 · sourcepilot.co · its alternatives →
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Hey HN, I'm an author and I spent 2+ years writing my first book and getting it published. After my experience, I realized that 99% of all business books follow the same structure. So, with the rise of AI solutions, we asked ourselves if we could simplify the process to help first-time authors achieve their dream of writing and publishing a book. Together with a friend, we created First Book ai. Now, we can create coherent, full-size books in hours, saving first-time authors years in the process. We hope this tool will be helpful for as many upcoming authors as possible. Would love your…
2024 · firstbook.ai · its alternatives →
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- 17IM
Hi HN, Since 2019, I’ve been working on a writing platform designed for creating complex documents (e.g., theses). I personally use it for everything as it also allows to classify documents in categories so you can organize them efficiently. As of a few months ago, the app is also available in the browser, and you can now invite coworkers to collaborate on a document in real time. The app is somewhat inspired by LyX. It offers an intuitive, modern editor, but users don’t need to know any LaTeX. When it’s time to export, they can choose from a range of templates (IEEE paper, thesis, etc.). A…
2025 · its alternatives →
- 18GD
Hello HN, I’m Andrew from docs.dev (https://docs.dev/), an AI powered docs assistant. With docs.dev you can generate your docs directly from your codebase, existing docs and other context sources. We don’t believe AI will replace technical writers—our goal is to make it easier for teams to get a solid first draft that they can review, edit, and improve. Think of it as a head start, not a finished product. More info on what we’ve built below but we wanted to release a quick, 1 minute, generate docs from your codebase tool. Try it out here:…
2025 · app.docs.dev · its alternatives →
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Interviews with the 15 most interesting computer programmers
2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →
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Write your book. Stay on track. ✍️
2024 · anjalisinha.gumroad.com · its alternatives →
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A book on creating incredible technical content
2020 · wfsd.com · its alternatives →
- 22MF
Just finished my second year at college studying Computer Science, and wanted to try and gain experience as a full stack dev this summer, so I made a website that allows users to create stories using openai's API, using embeddings for custom terms users can define, and create short stories and chapters alike. I'm mainly just looking for some feedback on how I can improve it or make it more presentable, so any help/feedback is welcome and appreciated!
2023 · plotnotes.ai · its alternatives →
- 23IC
2020 · docs.google.com · its alternatives →
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