Top all-time · #6626
AlternativeBit
Personal blog · alternativebit.fr/postsprogrammingsystems
AlternativeBit is a personal blog at alternativebit.fr about programming and systems. Since 2018, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter (2018)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this post as an example of a digital typewriter built from a Raspberry Pi and an e-ink screen, with the code and build instructions on GitHub. Commenters cite it as a related project.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter (2018)6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-10-17
- /posts/ultimate-writer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-27
- The Nix, OpenGL and Ubuntu Integration Nightmare2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-20
What Hacker News says?
> Reminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer Related: https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter > Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool. I agree: e-ink display + terminal + vim + mechanical keyboard would make me very happy.
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer
on “ReMarkable 2.0 – A digital notebook that feels like paper”Submitted Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter (2018) as a story · 171 points
HN discussionReminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer The problem with this project was the lack of a affordable e-ink display with a decent refresh rate. Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool.
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer
on “ReMarkable 2.0 – A digital notebook that feels like paper”Submitted Ultimate Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter as a story · 73 points
HN discussionThere have been in few in the last years. Here are two from the top of my head. https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/02/14/the-spudwrite-single-pu... Also, you might like to check out the pomera https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/digital-memo-pomera-dm3...
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer/
on “The Modos Paper Laptop”Submitted Please, Keep Your Blog Light as a story · 5 points
HN discussionHave a look at this: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer/
on “Using a Piece of Paper as a Display Terminal – Ed vs. Vim”Submitted The Nix, OpenGL and Ubuntu Integration Nightmare as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> ... I wish I had a 19th century typewriter, hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and make a dumb terminal ... I just wish I could make a mechanical computer from woods ... Something like this? "A digital typewriter based on a Raspberry Pi and an E-Ink screen. ... The case has been made from a locally grown cypress. ..." https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ The code/build instructions are available on GitHub.
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer/
on “The VT-69 portable data terminal”Submitted The Nix, OpenGL and Ubuntu Integration Nightmare as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI'm reminded of this project from a year and a half ago. https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/
Comment linking /posts/ultimate-writer/
on “Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?”Submitted Ex-Hack: Haskell code examples automatically generated from reverse dependencies as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
