Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming
Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by Van Roy and Haridiby Van Roy and Haridi
Shares rank 19 of 28 computer science textbooks by recommenders
Recommended for teaching how programming paradigms fit together on a simple core language, and for building strong fundamentals that make learning new languages faster.
Recommended for teaching how programming paradigms fit together on a simple core language, and for building strong fundamentals that make learning new languages faster.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not 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
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 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
Builds primitives that speed learning languages
“made me primed to learn a lot of languages fast - because I had the primitives mastered”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” Shows adding paradigms to a core language
“Shows how to organically add different programming paradigms to a simple core language.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The seven programming ur-languages” Feels like a cool new book
“In my mind it's still a cool new book.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Ada, Its Design, and the Language That Built the Languages”
Other computer science textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other computer science textbooks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 55 | 5 | 92% | 12 | — | Approved |
| The Art of Computer Programmingby Donald E. Knuth | 28 | 6 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 12 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Quantum Computation and Quantum Informationby Nielsen and Chuang | 12 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programmingby Van Roy and HaridiThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Shows how to organically add different programming paradigms to a simple core language.”
“In my mind it's still a cool new book.”
“made me primed to learn a lot of languages fast - because I had the primitives mastered”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.