Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach
Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach by Brad Coxby Brad Cox
Shares rank 59 of 115 programming books by recommenders
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.
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.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not 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
- 4 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
Interesting historical view of OOP
“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”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Five Years of Running a Systems Reading Group at Microsoft” Good insights on OOP and OOD
“i liked this one and got some good insights from it, though it was so old it was hard to get through”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Why I Always End Up Going Back to C” “for edification on OOD/OOP”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Why I Always End Up Going Back to C”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Old and hard to read
“i liked this one and got some good insights from it, though it was so old it was hard to get through”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Why I Always End Up Going Back to C” Little pragmatic use
“it's hard to imagine it was of much pragmatic use”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Five Years of Running a Systems Reading Group at Microsoft”
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 |
| Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approachby Brad CoxThis page | 4 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“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”
“it's hard to imagine it was of much pragmatic use”
“i liked this one and got some good insights from it, though it was so old it was hard to get through”
“for edification on OOD/OOP”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.