I often wonder about a fantasy world where magic works like technology in the real world (like there is long arduous research to create new spells, not simply "being born with magical talent"). Would it become a popular fantasy setting?
The Obsidian Trilogy (Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory) is set in such a world, though it also features "wild magic" (you petition the wild gods for an effect, and you probably get it, but you take on an open-ended obligation to do something for them at a later point) and demonic magic.
> you petition the wild gods for an effect, and you probably get it, but you take on an open-ended obligation to do something for them at a later point) and demonic magic
A comedy series takes this literally. Magic 2.0 by Scott Meyer.
On some computers there's a mysterious file that has all of the (world/universe's)? object variables, such as a person/object's location or height, age, etc, and magic is performed by manipulating those via verbal macros.
New spells are researched by literally programming and debugging.
It's a fun series, but it feels the author's done about as much as he can with it.
I read a litrpg book that the main character got a power that was basically programming. He could modify objects to do certain things based on triggers.
It was quite entertaining. But most of what he did was either off-the-cuff, or the book hid the hours and hours of testing and research so that it wouldn't bore the reader.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the name of the book in my reading history.
Now that you mention it I seem to remember a book where a programmer beams himself into a world where he can then live like a wizard because he can affect it with his programming. Also can't remember the title, but it was a fun read.
Recent Dr Strange has him learn how to forge magic items in a somewhat structured way after running into an alien who approaches magic pretty much like technology.
