Herbie
Numerical compiler in Developer tools
Free tool that analyzes math expressions for floating point error and automatically finds more accurate formulas; critics say it does not replace understanding floating point issues.
9 people recommended Herbie in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
5 of the 9 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Herbie: Automatically improve imprecise floating point formulas”.
Summary written by Claude from 16 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 15 of those comments still count.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 3
The record
Recommended in 4 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- 5 of its 9 recommenders came from one threadNeeds half or less, not met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 15 of the 16 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Neat, interesting tool people hadn't heard of
“What a neat tool, I had no idea such a thing existed!”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Racket v9.3” “The tool already seems quite nice”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Herbie: Automatically improve imprecise floating point formulas” “This is very interesting!”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Herbie: Automatically improve imprecise floating point formulas” Automatically finds more accurate formulas
“This finds good formulas completely automatically.”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Herbie: Automatically improve imprecise floating point formulas” “this is Herbie's core strength”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Herbie: Automatically improve imprecise floating point formulas” Spares programmers manual floating point work
“Herbie's approach can evolve to a point where the person writing the software doesn't directly write FPU operations”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Compiler-Assisted Floating-Point Error Analysis and Profiling with FPChecker” “You can use software like "Herbie" to help you a bit, but today's languages just leave you with it.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Faster floating point math with Rust's new API”
What people said
15 of the 16 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Herbie analyzes your math expressions and helps you figure out where FP error accumulates.”
“What a neat tool, I had no idea such a thing existed!”
“it continues to be one of the most used tools in my personal projects”
“You can use software like "Herbie" to help you a bit, but today's languages just leave you with it.”
“FPChecker and Herbie are complementary.”
“Herbie's approach can evolve to a point where the person writing the software doesn't directly write FPU operations”
“It shields programmers from their ignorance.”
“This is very interesting!”
“Because if yes then it can be misleading, and potentially a bad meshes to rank alternatives”
“this is Herbie's core strength”
“This isn’t a library, you don’t include in your application, and it doesn’t try to replace an understanding of floating point issues”
“This finds good formulas completely automatically.”
“didn't see much appreciable improvement over the expected range of values”
“The tool already seems quite nice”
“0.5 doesn't seem tolerably close to 0.4142”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.