Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Description

The classic guide to how computers work, updated with new chapters and interactive graphics "For me, Code was a revelation. It was the first book about programming that spoke to me. It started with a story, and it built up, layer by layer, analogy by analogy, until I understood not just the Code, but the System. Code is a book that is as much about Systems Thinking and abstractions as it is about code and programming. Code teaches us how many unseen layers there are between the computer systems that we as users look at every day and the magical silicon rocks that we infused with lightning and taught to think." - Scott Hanselman, Partner Program Director, Microsoft, and host of Hanselminutes Computers are everywhere, most obviously in our laptops and smartphones, but also our cars, televisions, microwave ovens, alarm clocks, robot vacuum cleaners, and other smart appliances. Have you ever wondered what goes on inside these devices to make our lives easier but occasionally more infuriating? For more than 20 years, readers have delighted in Charles Petzold's illuminating story of the secret inner life of computers, and now he has revised it for this new age of computing. Cleverly illustrated and easy to understand, this is the book that cracks the mystery. You'll discover what flashlights, black cats, seesaws, and the ride of Paul Revere can teach you about computing, and how human ingenuity and our compulsion to communicate have shaped every electronic device we use. This new expanded edition explores more deeply the bit-by-bit and gate-by-gate construction of the heart of every smart device, the central processing unit that combines the simplest of basic operations to perform the most complex of feats. Petzold's companion website, CodeHiddenLanguage.com, uses animated graphics of key circuits in the book to make computers even easier to comprehend. In addition to substantially revised and updated content, new chapters include: Chapter 18: Let's Build a Clock! Chapter 21: The Arithmetic Logic Unit Chapter 22: Registers and Busses Chapter 23: CPU Control Signals Chapter 24: Jumps, Loops, and Calls Chapter 28: The World Brain From the simple ticking of clocks to the worldwide hum of the internet, Code reveals the essence of the digital revolution. Review: Great intro to computation - Im currently building my foundations in computers on a lower level one book at a time. I came into software engineering from a sales background. Over time, I’ve realised that while practical experience teaches you a lot, it can leave gaps in the deeper why behind how computers actually work and why software behaves the way it does. So I’ve been creating my own structured learning path to fill those gaps, starting from the ground up. The first book I chose is this one right here! It’s not a typical programming book. It starts with how humans first used codes to communicate through Morse code, telegraphs, and switches and slowly builds toward how those same ideas evolved into modern computers. What surprised me most is how much of computing is built on very simple logic. At its core, everything reduces to circuits making yes/no decisions and when you chain enough of those together, you get adders, memory, and eventually an entire processor. Reading it connected a lot of dots for me like how information becomes binary, how logic gates combine to perform arithmetic. It made computing feel less like magic and more like a long, logical sequence that starts with electricity and ends with the systems we work with every day. If you’re self taught, or you feel like you’ve jumped straight into frameworks and languages without really understanding what’s underneath, I’d highly recommend this book. It helped me see computers as one continuous chain of reasoning from Morse code to microprocessors. Review: Demanding but rewarding introduction for the layman - I just began reading it. Fascinating and well explained. For my desk not for the deck chair but worth the effort to understand the concepts.