Show HN: Was pissed about Google Docs, So I made an Text Editor myself
by jucasoliveira | 2025-10-03 19:58:46+00:00
It’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 writers have this figured out beforehand, but not me. I began writing pieces to see if they would fit together and make sense. I started gathering philosophical anecdotes based on my core beliefs and sensed something brewing. When I finally decided what the book would be about, and what I wanted to write, the type of writing I wanted to do, I saw an already sizable document with ideas scattered throughout it. That was good for me, as I could just join the pieces, but I didn’t want to be trapped in writing that could be repetitive. I wanted to have the ideas, philosophy, the whole reason why the book is like this, stored in a place I could easily access. I'm planning to use AI as a memory dump, where I can add information during a conversation. Then, whenever I consult it, I can check if I've already written something and if it reflects the temper and pace I want for my book. Everything seems fine, but we encountered a few problems. First, the AI's writing was a conundrum of errors. I could gain assistance and a sense of what to write, but the AI itself, due to our prolonged interchange, started to hallucinate and produce nonsense or "forget" our conversation. The second issue was that the AI couldn't consistently verify what was already written. As the text grew larger, the context window began to shrink, and the more I used the AI tool, the less helpful it became. So I decided to search for a tool that could do what I wanted. I found elements in each of the products I've used: some were extremely satisfying to write with, others had good features to enhance text, some allowed me to organize my book by scattering ideas effectively, and still others used AI for correction and proofreading tasks. The solutions for this market are diverse and offer numerous approaches. I could easily transition between tools, but I wanted something unified to keep my writing process in one place. That’s why I created this text editor and called it SourcePilot. It’s a tool that identifies your writing style as you write, allowing you to add notes, sources, and videos, and to use them as context for the AI, enabling more nuanced outputs tailored to your writing. It was interesting to build, and I’m providing a link you can try. It’s a desktop app, and you can use it for free, depending on the hardware you have. I’m looking for people who could give me feedback on what's wrong with it. People who could not install it (I’ve built it on Mac and could not test Linux and Windows), or have problems logging in. I keep getting loads of problems because I’m using the tool right now as I write this text. I'm planning to launch a new version soon, featuring an anti-slop algorithm I’ve developed, along with document branching. I just want to see if there are people interested in using it at the moment. If there aren't users, that's fine. I think I’ve made something for myself anyway. :) Thank you for your attention if you made it this far. You’re greatly appreciated. Cheers!