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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

T5

24 alternatives to Tiny 5kb function who parse user input

Hi guys, I just created a tiny function that takes user input of CLI and return and object with formatted controls and options. Do whatever you want with it :) https://github.com/luctst/argv-user-input

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Tiny 5kb function who parse user input launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    Long-simmering side project that is finally ready to see the light. HAMTs are a cool persistent data structure and implementing one has been a lot of fun. Beyond the code, there is likely some value in the extensive and largely complete implementation docs; basic benchmarks are linked in the README, too. Kind of aiming to be "the libavl for HAMTs". That is obviously a high and aspirational bar but a distinct possibility if it stirs up a little interest and/or contribution. Anyways, it's time for this to go out, collect feedback and maybe even some use outside of toy projects. Let me…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    See what it’s like to program in a language without null.

    2015 · books.thoughtbot.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Wrote this to learn more about the `chumsky` parser combinator library, rustyline, and the `ariadne` error reporting crate. Such a nice DX combo for writing new languages. Still a work in progress, but I thought I'd share :)

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4
    Rim▲2

    a minimal library to build CLI programs in C

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Hi HN, I'm thrilled to share with you think, a command-line tool that I developed while diving back into the programming scene. For the past few years, my focus had shifted from hands-on programming to managerial roles, my last one being at Affirm (I started Affirm's Polish office). However, I recently left my job to revisit my passion for coding and see if I could still write code that works. Not to mention that with what is currently going on in AI if you are a developer this probably the best possible time for a sabbatical in human history :) My first attempt was with LangChain, but I…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    This is my side project for the past few months. I started it because I just learned about functional programming and at the same time want to write something cool in C. Web playground: https://leonw774.github.io/lreng

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7CP

    Hi hackers, long time reader, first time "real" submitter. This is by no means a revolutionary idea, or even execution, but rather something I've always wanted to do, just to see if I could write a good implementation of it. So without further adieu: http://ca.pitali.st/ Yes, it's just an URL shortener. Please check out the API and if there anything you like about it, please share, so I can take this feedback with me to my future projects. If there's something you REALLY hate, that's feedback too. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings; this was put together in less than 4 hours to see if I…

    2011 · ca.pitali.st · its alternatives →

  8. 8UI

    Hey everyone! I am excited to share updates on four of my & my teams' open-source projects that take large-scale search systems to the next level: USearch, UForm, UCall, and StringZilla. These projects are designed to work seamlessly together, end-to-end—covering everything from indexing and AI to storage and networking. And yeah, they're optimized for x86 AVX2/512 and Arm NEON/SVE hardware. USearch [1]: Think of it as Meta FAISS on steroids. It's now quicker, supports clustering of any granularity, and offers multi-index lookups. Plus, it's got more native bindings than probably…

    2023 · usearch-images.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Hi HN, I'm the author. I built this project for two simple reasons: I've always used higher-level languages and wanted to finally understand what's happening "under the hood" of an interpreter. I also wanted a real project to force me to "power up" my C skills, especially with manual memory management and reference counting. The result is ToyForth, a minimal interpreter for a Forth-like language, written from scratch in C, stack-based. I focused on making the code clean and understandable. It's broken down into a few simple parts: A parser that turns source text into a list of objects…

    Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Compiler Backend for LSTS (High-Level Typed Macro Assembler) - andrew4328/lambda-mountain

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    A golang library for building interactive and accessible prompts with full support for windows and posix terminals. - AlecAivazis/survey

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12AF

    Another Sunday afternoon project: add some pizzaz to your boring bare metal or virtual machine consoles! Written as a single Go binary; no dependencies. https://github.com/Fusion/modernfbv As usual, feedback please!

    2022 · its alternatives →

  13. 13IB

    After fine-tuning GPT for a personal project, I realized how tedious it is to write plain text in a massive JSON file. That's why I built this app for my own use, and I want to see if others could benefit from a tool like this as well ;)

    2024 · finetuna-ui.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I’ve had this idea for a new code editor chord grammar bouncing around in my head for over 2 years, and now I can finally release v0.1 of ane. You can run it one-shot from scripts or agents (`ane exec —chord…`) or use its full-on TUI editor. ane is pure Rust, and integrates tree-sitter and LSP to provide a pleasant and predictable terminal code editing experience. I’d love folks to try it out and give feedback! Thanks :)

    May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Hey everyone! I just launched Essentials-C, a minimal C library with handy functions for string and array manipulation – built from scratch with simplicity and learning in mind. Highlights: - `length`, `reverse`, `substring`, `trim`, `replaceChar`, etc. - `bubbleSort`, `includes`, `startsWith`, `endsWith`, and more - Pure C, no external dependencies - Clean, readable code – great for beginners and power users I’m building it to be the “Essentials” of every C project — feel free to contribute or suggest features! GitHub: https://github.com/oileo/Essentials-C Feedback is…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Learn how to write Rules Engines with CLIPS in your browser! I found the Tour of Go super useful when learning Go, so I went for something similar for evangelizing the awesomeness of CLIPS. A few things I'm proud of with this project: - No front-end frameworks - Compiled WASM binary; your code isn't sent to a back-end server - Code editor/syntax highlighter written from scratch (that I'm sure you'll find bugs in ;)) This is my first attempt at this, and I'd like to expand on it in the future. Let me know what you think! About CLIPS: CLIPS is a programming language useful for building…

    2022 · ryjo.codes · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hi HN! I kept hearing about Lisp and why it was special but didn't have a great place to start. I wanted something self-contained that helped me develop intuition rather than fluency. My hope is this is helpful for casual programmers, professionals from other fields who interact with code, or engineers who haven't had much exposure to interpreters or compilers. Hope this helps anyone else who's curious about getting a sense of Lisp and what makes it special with a limited time investment! Feedback or other cool Lisp things welcome :)

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Put this together this afternoon. I've been after something to quickly jot down the odd piece of information that I can access later in the day when browsing the web. Hopefully you find it useful. Criticism/thoughts/ideas greatly appreciated. I should add, since all the hard work here lies in the work of others here — garlic.js is a great plugin for handling localstorage. Cheers Jason

    2012 · a5.gg · its alternatives →

  19. 19HM

    I made this as a pair programming exercise with o1-preview. o1 did most of the heavy lifting, through high level prompts, but eventually I needed to diverge from it to get to completion. My initial prompt was: --- I'm making a web app: It's like 4chan, but each thread starts with a gps coordinate. People can only post text and images. I want to build it with flask and sqlalchemy. I want just the backend and data model that supports these threads, anonymous users, and users that can register a permanent username. Write as much of it as you can for me. --- This produced a fully scaffolded…

    2024 · mapchan.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20FT

    After six months of work, I am here again presenting Fluent – a tiny lang which is optimized for differentiable & reactive programming. Since I am not Conal Elliot, don't expect a beautiful theoretical unification of FRP and AD from first principles. Rather, a horrific monster that holds together mostly because a lot of duct-tape. The link points to the semi-interactive tour of the language, which will get the job done much better than I could in here. Hope you hate/like it!

    Jul 2026 · mlajtos.github.io · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Hey HN! Last week I was working on a website and needed a way to synchronise visuals with live music. I've used MIDI controllers for this before, but I am travelling right now and don't have mine with me. So I had the crazy idea to build a browser extension that uses the keyboard as input and includes a sequencer. I gave myself 24 to work on it. It ended up taking longer (of course), specially since I ended up creating a demo, a small landing, docs, and an intro video. Took me one week from idea to launch (pushed quite a bit tbh). Features: - Works as a browser extension. Atm distributed…

    2024 · minitap.io · its alternatives →

  22. 22AA
  23. 23AS

    This is incredibly over-engineered, but it was quite a fun process. :)

    2024 · alexsaveau.dev · its alternatives →

  24. 24GS

    I've worked on several projects writing and implementing specifications (particularly CLN): I've found the specs I write are much better when I quote them in the implementation, so I can see what implementers need to know. Also, when specs change in development, it's almost trivial to find where to update the code. This project is a formalization of my various hacky scripts which ensure the requirements are accurately quoted, and give coverage if any are missing. Not a major Opus, but I hope someone else finds it useful!

    Jul 2026 · greatspectations.org · its alternatives →

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