Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to The Magic of Code – book about the wonders and weirdness of computation
I recently published a book called “The Magic of Code” which is about the delights of the computational world, examining computing as a kind of “humanistic liberal art” that connects to so many topics, from art and biology to philosophy and language. The link I’ve shared is to a page on my book’s website where you can download a pdf of the introduction, to give HN readers a taste of what is inside. Right now there is so much worry and concern around technology that I feel like some people—though not the folks here—have forgotten how much fun that code and computation can also be. So I wanted…
The Magic of Code" is a book exploring computation as a humanistic liberal art, connecting computer science to fields like art, biology, philosophy, and language. Written for people curious about computing's broader… 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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Code▲76The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
2016 · namecheap.com · its alternatives →
- 2IW
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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Nature of Code▲107Learn to program computer simulations of natural systems
2017 · natureofcode.com · 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 →
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i made an esoteric programming language which i call spellscript. every program is a "spell" written in a "grimoire," and you have to use keywords like summon, enchant, inscribe, and conjure. it's literally read like a spellbook because the syntax consists of all natural language, and newlines are optional. your code can now be an essay, like everybody wants! for example, if you want to print something, you'd write: `begin the grimoire. inscribe whispers of "hello, world!". close the grimoire.` it has variables, dynamic typing, arrays, functions, conditionals, loops, string manipulation,…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Interviews with the 15 most interesting computer programmers
2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →
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2017 · craftinginterpreters.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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Clever solutions to classic programming problems
2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →
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"The Bible" of all fundamental algorithms for programming
2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN! I'm currently a Master's student at USTC (University of Science and Technology of China). I've been diving deep into Data Engineering, especially in the context of Large Language Models (LLMs). The Problem: I found that learning resources for modern data engineering are often fragmented and scattered across hundreds of medium articles or disjointed tutorials. It's hard to piece everything together into a coherent system. The Solution: I decided to open-source my learning notes and build them into a structured book. My goal is to help developers fast-track their learning curve. Key…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! I've been curious about the history of computer science and decided to try to read Turing's 1936 paper where he conceptualizes the Turing Machine, etc. I had trouble understanding the paper, read The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold (which is wonderful), but felt that reading a reference implementation would help formalize my understanding. When I couldn't find an open source implementation, I decided to write my own. The implementation includes: - Abbreviated tables (m-functions) - Conversions to Standard Descriptions and Description Numbers - A working universal machine - A…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Stephen Wolfram's new book on the Wolfram Language
2015 · wolfram.com · its alternatives →
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After a four year journey, the book I wrote to help junior and mid-level programmers earn their first promotion was published today . The book is titled Junior to Senior: Career Advice for the Ambitious Programmer and is now available on Holloway’s website[0]. I truly believe that soft-skills are what makes the difference between a good programmer and a great one. I also believe that anyone can learn the soft-skills needed to accelerate their programming career. I wish I’d had better resources to learn these things in the early years of my career and I’m hoping this book will become a useful…
2022 · holloway.com · its alternatives →
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2012 · leanpub.com · its alternatives →
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A glimpse inside the minds of highly creative people
2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →
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A Day in Code▲126A picture book written in code (with English translations!)
2020 · kickstarter.com · its alternatives →
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- 24CA
2017 · billsix.github.io · its alternatives →
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