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Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

philipkiely.com

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Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#21

Post by philipkiely »

swyx wrote: post #18
philipkiely wrote: post #2

Hi HN, I have been working on Writing for Software Developers for six months and I'm so excited to finally launch it! I set myself the goal of launching before my (now virtual) university graduation and I'm proud to have hit that goal by six days. Right now the book is 12 dollars off (launch pricing) and you can read chapter 1 for free at https://philipkiely.com/assets/files/wfsd_chapter1_sample.pd... The book featur…

thats awesome, congrats on launching! as a fellow soon-to-be first time gumroad author - what was your tech stack for writing and publishing? i tried Ulysses and Scrivener and Leanpub and wasn't happy with any of them. looking to go from markdown to PDF/Epub/Mobi with good control over table of contents, footnotes, and linking between chapters. i have a list of alternatives to explore.. just wondering what worked for…

I wrote in Markdown as well. I turned that into a microsoft word doc that I formatted then created the PDF. I used pandoc to create the EPUB, then calibre to make the MOBI from the EPUB. I tried to use pandoc to make the PDF but it did not go well, word was surprisingly easy to use for that.

The cover art was created by a friend of mine from college. I used https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/ to make the image on the landing page.

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#22

Post by philipkiely »

eykd wrote: post #19

Hey Philip, this is great. I'm curious, what tools did you use to produce the book?

I wrote in Markdown. I turned that into a microsoft word doc that I formatted then created the PDF. I used pandoc to create the EPUB, then calibre to make the MOBI from the EPUB. I tried to use pandoc to make the PDF but it did not go well, word was surprisingly easy to use for that. The cover art was created by a friend of mine from college. I used https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/ to make the image on the landing page.

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#23

Post by ashnehete »

chpmrc wrote: post #9

Writing seems to be the single best thing you can do as a professional, in other areas as well. I know people who were hired because of a single Medium article that got a lot of traction (and made that person sort of a reference in the industry). What do you think about videos? I see lifestyle channels for devs and tech workers taking off but do you think there's a chance the same might happen for more technical chan…

Personal opinion on video v/s text channel. While watching a video, I have to follow a linear path, I can't skip much incase I miss some context. On the other hand, its easier to skim written content.

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#24

Post by jonfw »

chpmrc wrote: post #9

Writing seems to be the single best thing you can do as a professional, in other areas as well. I know people who were hired because of a single Medium article that got a lot of traction (and made that person sort of a reference in the industry). What do you think about videos? I see lifestyle channels for devs and tech workers taking off but do you think there's a chance the same might happen for more technical chan…

Forced pace is a huge problem for videos. If you encounter a paragraph that you already know all about in an article, you can skip it. If you encounter a section of a video like that, it's harder to skip so I'll end up trying to sit through it, getting bored, then distracted, and then who knows what I'll miss.

The 'killer feature' of writing is the ability to self-pace. To me that makes them orders of magnitude more effective as a means of communicating ideas.

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#26

Post by xueyongg »

Keep writing!! I've personally started my journey into content creation as a software engineer just this year! To be more focused, I found a growing passion for Design Patterns and started writing my learning about them. Hope to share the same passion with you! Keep going pal! Would love to hear some tips from you! Here's my site, and hope it encourages you all!

https://blog.phuaxueyong.com/post/2020-05-03-3-more-cloud-de...

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#27

Post by philipkiely »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #25

Amazing! Just purchased it. Thanks Phillip. Question on the side: does anybody know of a good app that could "read" the epub for me? I feel like I could listen to these interviews while doing chores at home.

Thanks for the support! I hope you enjoy it

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#29

Post by koonsolo »

jonfw wrote: post #24
chpmrc wrote: post #9

Writing seems to be the single best thing you can do as a professional, in other areas as well. I know people who were hired because of a single Medium article that got a lot of traction (and made that person sort of a reference in the industry). What do you think about videos? I see lifestyle channels for devs and tech workers taking off but do you think there's a chance the same might happen for more technical chan…

Forced pace is a huge problem for videos. If you encounter a paragraph that you already know all about in an article, you can skip it. If you encounter a section of a video like that, it's harder to skip so I'll end up trying to sit through it, getting bored, then distracted, and then who knows what I'll miss. The 'killer feature' of writing is the ability to self-pace. To me that makes them orders of magnitude more…

I'm in the same boat. But I noticed a lot of my developer co-workers prefer video's. Especially the younger generation (I'm 41).

Re: Show HN: Writing for Software Developers

#30

Post by skummetmaelk »

jonfw wrote: post #24
chpmrc wrote: post #9

Writing seems to be the single best thing you can do as a professional, in other areas as well. I know people who were hired because of a single Medium article that got a lot of traction (and made that person sort of a reference in the industry). What do you think about videos? I see lifestyle channels for devs and tech workers taking off but do you think there's a chance the same might happen for more technical chan…

Forced pace is a huge problem for videos. If you encounter a paragraph that you already know all about in an article, you can skip it. If you encounter a section of a video like that, it's harder to skip so I'll end up trying to sit through it, getting bored, then distracted, and then who knows what I'll miss. The 'killer feature' of writing is the ability to self-pace. To me that makes them orders of magnitude more…

Written materials can also be used as reference much more easily. You can't ctr+f a video to look for the specific nugget of information you need.
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