# Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach by Brad Cox

4 Hacker News commenters recommended Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach by Brad Cox and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its historical view of early object-oriented experimentation and insight into OOP and OOD. Critics find it dated and of little practical use.

## Why people recommend it

- Interesting historical view of OOP (1 comments): "these artifacts of early experimentation, competitors against what evolved into mainstream OOP, are many times more interesting to read than the Nth "OOP sux" article" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47485783))
- Good insights on OOP and OOD (2 comments): "i liked this one and got some good insights from it, though it was so old it was hard to get through" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46843189)) "for edification on OOD/OOP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46824319))

## What people warn about

- Old and hard to read (1 comments): "i liked this one and got some good insights from it, though it was so old it was hard to get through" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46843189))
- Little pragmatic use (1 comments): "it's hard to imagine it was of much pragmatic use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47485650))

## 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=Object-Oriented+Programming%3A+An+Evolutionary+Approach+by+Brad+Cox&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach by Brad Cox", https://hackerapproved.com/p/object-oriented-programming-an-evolutionary-approach/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).