Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold (1999-10-23) Hardcover – 1 Jan. 1739

I used to read to my son every night, fact or fiction. We enjoyed a whole range of books and I treasure that time now that he's more independent.There is only one book that stands out in our memory from that time together. It's the same for both of us. It's this book. Code.A masterful journey from Morse code to machine code, it carefully addresses every fundamental step along the way. It wisely judges which practical detail to include, and what to abstract away. For example, when we tried to make our own 2-bit adder with transistors, we found the book was not quite adequate to support that activity!But the purpose of the book is not to guide you through making your own computer; it is to guide you through the principles of a computer at every level. Know-how takes years to acquire; but principles can be conveyed in a book and give the deep insight needed to think about computers. This book succeeds in that endeavour.The pace, clarity, subtle wit, care and attention in this book are second to none. Rarely have I ever trusted an author so much.I highly recommend this book. It is in my top five ever.

I am a developer with 30 years of experience in programming. Even knowing some basics about electricity and electronics I've always struggled with a gap between hard and soft. This book fills it perfectly.

This book builds up an understanding of what is actually happening behind the scenes when you use a computer.The first third or so explains the concepts of information, data representation, number systems, communication, Boolan logic, and logic gates.The next third uses this foundation to describe and explain how differetn chipsets operate, inputs/outputs, and how operations such as arithmetic, looping, and memory allocation are conducted. This section can get a little dry in places, which is my only negative thing to say about this book.The final section explains how programming langauges work, starting from Assembler, through to C, and on to thier high level languages. It also discusses things such as ASCII, graphics, OOP, buses and user space.As an electronic and software engineer, I thought this book would just be light reading, but it was actually very informative and more useful than a lot of textbooks I have read. I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in how hardware or software operate, or even anyone who has always assumed that computing is too complicated to understand. This book will prove you wrong!

As a software development manager, I employ many programmers (and other assorted life forms), and although they are (often) well versed in Object Oriented coding and High-Level languages, there is often a gap in their knowledge of the basics of computer science.What are the constituent elements of a computer? How is a CPU put together? How do transistors work? How do you build a logic gate? What is electricity? What is Assembly Language and how does it compare to Machine Code?Although you don't need to know the answers to these questions to be a good programmer - it is a bit like being a good car driver, but not really understanding how the internal combustion engine works - or how an automatic gearbox works... I think it is useful to understand the basics of the beast you are using - it at least makes you understand some of the potential foibles!I thoroughly recommend this book to all IT professionals.It starts with very very simple ideas - how to pass messages when you have only got an On/Off switch.This then builds up through telephone relays, Morse Code, electricity to build simple logic gates... all the way to building a PCWell written, with each topic explained elegantly and simply, this is a wonderful book that explains the fundamentals of computing. I started in IT (back in the 1970's) writing Assembler code for numeric controlled machines - so some of this was nostalgic history.It is not quite up to date (still talking about floppy discs) - but for a comprehensive overview of the design and development of computers - this is excellent.

This is an exceptional book. Petzold's writing style and passion, combined with his intelligence and ambition to create a truly profound work, make this one of the finest books I have ever come across. I bought this looking for a greater understanding of programming concepts with the hope that I would better understand the internal processes of computers. What I actually received was a logical and scientific explanation of why computers are the way they are based on the human need to communicate using codes.As an example of this book's greatness, it introduces the concept of binary mathematics through simple, intuitive examples (e.g. trying to communicate with someone in the dark using a torch). By the end of the first chapter you feel as though you understand the base-2 system—not as some kind of arbitrary standard chosen by figures from the past, but because of the immense power available from just two states (on/off, etc.). Petzold explains the logic behind Morse code and Braille, before one of the best introductions to basic physics I have ever read.The greatest pleasure of this book, I think, is that after each chapter you never know whether you're going to learn about hardware or software—and that leads to the kind of excitement that can only be generated by a truly wonderful teacher. It is no exaggeration to say that this book is a masterpiece, and you should pick it up whether you're interested in understanding the inner workings of the technology inside the tools you use every day, or whether you want to continue your scientific education.

El libro venía en buen estado, ninguna de las páginas estaba rayas o dañadas. Al exterior viene un protector pero ese sí estaba en malísimo estado. Aún así fue una buena compra

É um livro que te introduz à muitos conceitos de computação de forma muito clara e lúdica. Ele não é um livro pesado que você precisa ler enquanto faz várias anotações e pesquisa vários termos. Ele é realmente um livro introdutório, se você está começando ou já trabalha com computação e quer aprender esses conhecimentos básicos, esse é provavelmente um dos melhores livros. Mesmo na UFRJ as aulas não são tão claras e tão aprofundadas como esse livro, que em seu 12º cápitulo já explica ADDER usando circuitos lógicos, algo que eu não vi cursando ciência da computação na UFRJ, com matérias que utilizavam circuitos lógicos.

A must read for anyone interested in the world of computing-specially aspiring Computer Engineers and scientists

Alcune mollette dei miei faretti si sono rotte durante lo smontaggio per lavori e queste le hanno sostituite egregiamente.

I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in computers/computer science.