The Little Prover
The Little Prover by Daniel P. Friedman and Carl Eastlundby Daniel P. Friedman and Carl Eastlund
Shares rank 71 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it as a short, advanced book on proving things about your programs. Critics said it is very advanced.
People recommend it as a short, advanced book on proving things about your programs. Critics said it is very advanced.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not 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
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 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
Short book on program proofs
“two more great, short books on proving things about your program”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Introduction to Formal Verification with Lean Part 1” Fantastic for learning proof techniques
“"The little prover" is a fantastic book for that.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Learn Prolog Now (2006)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Very advanced for most readers
“and "The Little Prover" are all very advanced books”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning”
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 Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Matthias Felleisen and Robert Bruce Findler and Matthew Flatt and Shriram Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| The Little Proverby Daniel P. Friedman and Carl EastlundThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“two more great, short books on proving things about your program”
“and "The Little Prover" are all very advanced books”
“"The little prover" is a fantastic book for that.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.