Building a Debugger
Building a Debugger by Sy Brandby Sy Brand
Shares rank 59 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended as a guide to implementing a debugger from scratch; one critic found it very shallow.
Recommended as a guide to implementing a debugger from scratch; one critic found it very shallow.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong resource for learning about debugging
“Building a Debugger by Sy Brand is an awesome book if you want to learn more about this.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Durin is a library for reading and writing the Dwarf debugging format” Walks through building a complex project
“books that guide you through implementing complex systems projects from scratch”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “The Book of PF, 4th edition”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Hunt and Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Building a Debuggerby Sy BrandThis page | 4 | 1 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
3 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Those are some new and very very shallow books.”
“books that guide you through implementing complex systems projects from scratch”
“Building a Debugger by Sy Brand is an awesome book if you want to learn more about this.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.