WebAssembly from the Ground Up
WebAssembly from the Ground Up by Joe Clark and Patrick Dubroyby Joe Clark and Patrick Dubroy
Shares rank 21 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it as a hands-on guide that builds understanding of WebAssembly bytecode step by step, mostly by writing a small compiler in JavaScript.
People recommend it as a hands-on guide that builds understanding of WebAssembly bytecode step by step, mostly by writing a small compiler in JavaScript.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not 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
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 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
Hands-on, builds understanding step by step
“It starts with handcrafted bytecode for a minimal Wasm module in JavaScript”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “What Happened to WebAssembly” “you can learn Wasm by building a simple compiler in JavaScript, using Ohm”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Ohm Editor” “Doing is a far better way to learn than just reading.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “WebAssembly from the Ground Up” - Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “WebAssembly from the Ground Up”
Makes bytecode concepts click
“this is the first book that made the bytecode "click" as a whole”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “WebAssembly from the Ground Up” “Once you've worked through the book, you'd be able to grok tail calls pretty quickly.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “WebAssembly from the Ground Up”
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 |
| WebAssembly from the Ground Upby Joe Clark and Patrick DubroyThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It starts with handcrafted bytecode for a minimal Wasm module in JavaScript”
“This is a great resource for learning WASM”
“Well written, well structured code.”
“this seems like the next natural step!”
“this is the first book that made the bytecode "click" as a whole”
“Once you've worked through the book, you'd be able to grok tail calls pretty quickly.”
“the book provides a good structure that ultimately helps them become comfortable with the spec!”
“Doing is a far better way to learn than just reading.”
“It looks good! I may pick up a copy.”
“you can learn Wasm by building a simple compiler in JavaScript, using Ohm”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.