# Apple II Reference Manual by Jef Raskin

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple II Reference Manual by Jef Raskin and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a useful reference for Apple II programming, with ROM disassembly included and a decent backgrounder on the machine. No critics were noted.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful reference for Apple II (1 comments): "All of those are quite useful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781474))
- Includes ROM disassembly (1 comments): "that includes the ROM disassembly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781762))
- Decent backgrounder on the machine (1 comments): "it's a decent backgrounder" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46778677))
- Taught a lot back then (1 comments): "Learned a lot from this book back in the day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789912))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+II+Reference+Manual&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple II Reference Manual by Jef Raskin", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-ii-reference-manual/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).