Types and Programming Languages
Types and Programming Languages by Benjamin C. Pierceby Benjamin C. Pierce
Shares rank 6 of 28 computer science textbooks by recommenders
Recommended as the main book on type systems for its good coverage, though critics find its type-system treatment rudimentary and less grounded than CI.
Recommended as the main book on type systems for its good coverage, though critics find its type-system treatment rudimentary and less grounded than CI.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- 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: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 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
Recommended as the main book
“The main book I can recommend is Types and Programming Languages by Pierce.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Best books on building a programming language” Good coverage of type systems
“has some great coverage of this topic”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Types of types: Haskell's Kind system”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rudimentary type system coverage
“this book gives extremely rudimentary information on type systems”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Introduction to Compilers and Language Design” Less grounded than CI
“It's not a bad book, but less grounded than CI”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers (2008)”
Other computer science textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other computer science textbooks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 55 | 5 | 92% | 12 | — | Approved |
| The Art of Computer Programmingby Donald E. Knuth | 28 | 6 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programsby Abelson and Sussman | 12 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Quantum Computation and Quantum Informationby Nielsen and Chuang | 12 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Types and Programming Languagesby Benjamin C. PierceThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“has some great coverage of this topic”
“this book gives extremely rudimentary information on type systems”
“It's not a bad book, but less grounded than CI”
“The main book I can recommend is Types and Programming Languages by Pierce.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.