false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170271242m/44882.jpg 44882 2 Charles Petzold's latest book, <I>Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software</I>, crosses over into general-interest nonfiction from his usual programming genre. It's a carefully written, carefully researched gem that will appeal to anyone who wants to understand computer technology at its essence. Readers learn about number systems (decimal, octal, binary, and all that) through Petzold's patient (and frequently entertaining) prose and then discover the logical systems that are used to process them. There's loads of historical information too. From Louis Braille's development of his eponymous raised-dot code to Intel Corporation's release of its early microprocessors, Petzold presents stories of people trying to communicate with (and by means of) mechanical and electrical devices. It's a fascinating progression of technologies, and Petzold presents a clear statement of how they fit together. <p> The real value of <I>Code</I> is in its explanation of technologies that have been obscured for years behind fancy user interfaces and programming environments, which, in the name of rapid application development, insulate the programmer from the machine. In a section on machine language, Petzold dissects the instruction sets of the genre-defining Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800 processors. He walks the reader through the process of performing various operations with each chip, explaining which opcodes poke which values into which registers along the way. Petzold knows that the hidden language of computers exhibits real beauty. In <I>Code</I>, he helps readers appreciate it. <I>--David Wall</I><p> <B>Topics covered</B>: Mechanical and electrical representations of words and numbers, number systems, logic gates, performing mathematical operations with logic gates, microprocessors, machine code, memory and programming languages. 44204 1999 Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software total:102|5:51|4:36|3:12|2:3|1:0| 102 441 214 25 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Apr 05 19:38:16 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 05 19:48:40 -0700 2008
Petzold takes an entirely different tack, which is com...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 13:33:10 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 13:51:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 16 23:21:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 05 08:46:59 -0800 2009 Sun Aug 16 23:21:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Feb 09 10:54:27 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 09 15:53:04 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 10 11:09:56 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 11:11:19 -0700 2009
I probably learned more about architecture from this book than the quarter in my Architecture & OS class at university.]]> 0 0 false false Wed May 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 12:16:53 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 12:23:13 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 01 14:40:17 -0800 2008 Sun May 17 12:41:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 06:44:58 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 13:36:41 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 18:56:15 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 19:00:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 05 15:28:38 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 15:28:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Tue Aug 05 22:59:41 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 23:56:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 14:51:54 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 15:07:30 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Mon Mar 17 14:20:45 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 17 14:23:14 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Mon Dec 22 15:50:06 -0800 2008 Fri Apr 03 07:34:28 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Nov 07 15:48:18 -0800 2008 Sun Oct 12 12:33:11 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 07 15:48:18 -0800 2008 5 0 true false Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 17:54:38 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 30 20:05:30 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Tue Mar 13 13:22:51 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 13 13:24:17 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Jun 05 06:57:38 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 05 06:57:38 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Wed Apr 11 21:53:20 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 11 21:54:24 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Sun Jun 03 19:13:47 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 19:15:41 -0700 2007
Recommended.]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=44882