Starting Forth
Starting Forth by Leo Brodieby Leo Brodie
Shares rank 38 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended for charming illustrations and an intuitive introduction to Forth; one caveat is the dated 1979 FIG-Forth dialect, so people point to the ANS edition.
Recommended for charming illustrations and an intuitive introduction to Forth; one caveat is the dated 1979 FIG-Forth dialect, so people point to the ANS edition.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: 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
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Get the ANS edition
“Learn Forth with the Starting Forth book but for ANS forth”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Nobody knows how the whole system works” “Get Starting Forth but the ANS version”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “Forth??” “Starting Forth, ANS version”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The seven programming ur-languages”
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 |
| Starting Forthby Leo BrodieThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“To me, the language felt very intuitive and easy to grasp.”
“Starting Forth, ANS version”
“Somewhat dated (1979 FIG-Forth dialect)”
“Learn Forth with the Starting Forth book but for ANS forth”
“Get Starting Forth but the ANS version”
“It has the most charming illustrations I've ever seen in a text book.”
“Thanks for bringing back fond memories.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.