Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software 1st Edition

by Charles Petzold (Author)

1,693 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0735611313

ISBN-10: 9780735611313

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Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
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What do flashlights, the British invasion, black cats, and seesaws have to do with computers? In CODE, they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other. And through CODE, we see how this ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries.
Using everyday objects and familiar language systems such as Braille and Morse code, author Charles Petzold weaves an illuminating narrative for anyone who’s ever wondered about the secret inner life of computers and other smart machines.
It’s a cleverly illustrated and eminently comprehensible story—and along the way, you’ll discover you’ve gained a real context for understanding today’s world of PCs, digital media, and the Internet. No matter what your level of technical savvy, CODE will charm you—and perhaps even awaken the technophile within.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Petzold has been writing about Windows programming for 25 years. A Windows Pioneer Award winner, Petzold is author of the classic Programming Windows, the widely acclaimed Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, Programming Windows Phone 7, and more than a dozen other books.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0735611319
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Microsoft Press; 1st edition (October 11, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780735611313
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735611313
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 8.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #17,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Machine Theory (Books)
- #9 in Software Design & Engineering
- #26 in Software Development (Books)

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1,693 ratings

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Charles Petzold

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5 star		78%
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2 star		2%
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Top reviews from the United States

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John Cook

Missing letters and diagrams.

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

So much for buying the paperback. The very first thing I noticed was the large "Y" (I presume) to start Chapter 1 is missing. Upon closer inspection several large letters to start other chapters are missing. Upon even closer inspection, several diagrams are missing and only the top letters in several sentences are missing. Not great for a book full of diagrams. Thanks Microsoft Press.

63 people found this helpful

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Mike H.

Buy it, love it, share it.

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016

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Seriously, if you are the kind of person who needs to understand where things came from to really understand them, this is a great book. It is truly a book on code, and not just "how to code" or "what to do with code" but "what on earth is code" and where did it come from. It explains computers and computing in more usable terms than more technical books on the same subject because it focuses on history and scope rather than technical depth. For a reader like me, who asked every teacher from elementary school through college "why do we count to 10" and clung to the best answer of "it's arbitrary - it's just how it's always been done" until reading this book (and who struggled to convert binary to base ten), this book was gold. Pure gold.

208 people found this helpful

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Yohannes

Very good read

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2017

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Okay, so I'm only 30 pages into this book but I'm hooked. I started taking evening IT classes to get into a different career and ran into some issues in my A+ certification went they kept using volts, amperes and other terms that I only had a vague idea of what they meant. This book gave me a more solid understanding of these terms, so much so I saved a friend $85 dollars that he was about spent on a starter for his car. I saw immediately that the cable wire attached to the battery was missing a few inches of electrical tape, leaving the copper exposed. This book taught me that electricity does not ran very well through air, so we went to Auto Zone and bought some electrical tape to cover the exposed areas, making sure enough electricity is getting to the battery. I didn't think it was going to work but the car started right up! For a noob like me this was a big deal. This author created a strong interest in me for chemistry, which would of been real helpful years ago but oh well. I enjoyed his intro into Morse code and Brail as it felt he was conditioning readers to grasp idea how computers received and process information. Brail was very interesting as he pointed out how certain markers will alert a blind person to cease interpreting letters and switch over to numbers, than another nullifier to switch back to letters.

60 people found this helpful

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K. Nugent

Wonderful for non-technical backgrounds too!

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019

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I noticed that many of the reviews are written by folks who have some sort of technical background (e.g., engineers, IT professionals, or even just taking college-level classes in computer science). So I wanted to encourage people like me, who have no experience whatsoever in CS, to give this book a try! I purchased this book to challenge myself, but I honestly never thought I'd understand the material so well. The author does a remarkable job of explaining code, hardware, software, etc.--and how all these components interact--in a way that is personable and understandable, but without dumbing it down. I did need to read it more slowly than I do most other books, but the upshot was that I felt confident in my comprehension of the material before moving on to the next chapter. Mr. Petzold has a great writer's voice and a true talent for making a complicated subject fun to learn. Thank you for such an awesome book! I feel like I could clearly explain all of the major concepts to someone else, which I think is a key test of true understanding.

23 people found this helpful

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Agustin

however after some reading I've got to love it very quickly

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2016

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I'm an electronics engineer so basically I was not expecting to find much new stuff of this book when I first browsed the table of contents, however after some reading I've got to love it very quickly. Yeah, chances are that most of the devices described along the pages are familiar to many people, specially for those with education in engineering, but the way this book takes you from one to the next is as natural that new relationships start to be apparent right away and then, you finally got it !!. This book is a very nice mix of technical and historical, it will use your interest in electronics to tell you the whole story from the Morse code to the microprocessor. As I read I learned more about the many difficulties that our peers from the past had to deal with to solve their problems and, ultimately, create the technology of today.

51 people found this helpful

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Jeff L

A bridge between traditional relay logic and computers.

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2019

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When I first got this book about 5 years ago, I got lost about 2/3 of the way in. I loved it, but felt I needed to go back and re-read stuff that went over my head.

I picked it up again recently, after graduating with an electromechanical technology degree. I understood it much better and made it all the way through this time without getting lost. My first attempt also made going to school much easier in many ways.

In the electromechanical program we started with electronics, ladder drawings, relay logic, etc. and then moved into PLC’s and automation without much in between to connect the dots.

The true value of this book to me was that it connected the dots between traditional relay logic and what that has evolved into.

20 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Missing Diagrams

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

I don't know what's wrong with this printing, but I definitely got a misprinted copy. The diagrams are incomplete. This book is FULL of diagrams, which is one of the things I was excited about but sadly, my copy doesn't have the full diagrams. I don't know why the return window is so short - it was a gift that wasn't opened until past the return window - I want a refund for this defective item and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to request it other than leaving a one star review.

10 people found this helpful

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Carlos Cárdenas

Missprinted characters, good book, but prin quality is really poor.

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

It's a very good book. But it misprinted. Some chapters have issues with the starting characters (not printed). It doesn't affect the reading, but it's not the print I expected from Amazon. Also paper and book quality is quite low compared with other books I've purchased from Amazon in the past months.
As I read more and more, it becomes unreadable because of this. So yes, it does affect the reading. Sadly a waste of money.

8 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Fantastic book - really easy to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2019

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This book is sort of the middle ground between a text book and a popular science book. It's very readable, but I find it gives you much more rigor than your usual pop sci. I really like the extensive use of diagrams through out - this really helps to drill the concepts home.

I purchased this as I had started to do a little coding myself but wanted to know how everything worked underneath the hood. This answered those questions to enough of a depth that satisfied my needs - very happy with this book.

26 people found this helpful

Harald

The basics... are not basic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2020

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Ok, first of all - this is not a casual read if you are new to this topic. Petzold does not jump over topics or oversimplifies processes instead you will read about all the basics of a computer and code. However, the basics are already pretty profound so get ready to focus and ponder. The book is rewarding and enlightening - highly enjoyable and teaches you a few extra bits as well.

I am an amateur programmer and wanted to understand how it all works. I still don’t fully understand because I probably lack the intelligence but a smarter person would be able to grasp the theory using this book.

I can only recommend this book to people who are not satisfied with 20 min. youtube summaries and want to dig deeper.

15 people found this helpful

Filip Kolev

It tells a story, not mere facts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2018

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To be honest, I did not expect much of this book. I ordered it together with The Annotated Turing, again by Petzold. It was marked as a best seller, but that doesn't mean much, especially when computer science is concerned.

I own a great many awesome CS books. But this one went to the top of my list very quickly, perhaps just barely 20 pages in. It's not a description of who did what, or how a particular piece of technology works. It's a story of how our modern world came to be. And it's a brilliant story.

Petzold challenges the reader right at the start - assume you're 10 years old and in your home, trying to talk to your friend on the other side of the street. Of course, you don't have a phone or anything like that. You need to use technology which is freely available and will not wake up your parents. Step by step, you discover Morse code (discarding several options prior to reaching this stage). Then you solve various challenges, like assuming your friend does not live in a direct line of sight.

Little by little, we learn about Braille code, simple flashlights, relays, then go on to more ambitious concepts like logic gates, flip-flops and, ultimately, a fully functional computer made of relays and other simple components (which is, I should point out, purely fictional, of course). And I enjoyed every step of this journey.

The book is written with the general reader in mind, it does not target software developers or engineers. I cannot say how someone with no prior computer knowledge would find it; it is beyond my ability to imagine myself without everything I've learned since I began my career path as a programmer. Perhaps the point where assembly is introduced would be a bit too much, or the descriptions of Intel's 8080 and Motorola's 6800. But hey, we do get from flashlights to computers within 400 pages, so it can't all be a smooth ride.
Also, I should mention, the reader is bound to notice how old the book is :) Many technologies that were all around us at the time of writing are already gone and that was barely 20 years ago...

All in all, I probably didn't learn much I didn't already know, but if I ever recommend a computer book to a non-programmer this would be it. Very enjoyable and informative. You will not regret buying this.

16 people found this helpful

ztfk

This book pissed me off

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2021

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I'm pissed because I lost my copy and so I'm buying another one. This is the only book I've ever done this for. It's that good. Thankfully reasonably cheap unlike many other technical books.

Beside that, this is a rare unicorn of a book. It's rigorous and written well. That's a rare combination for this genre. It's actually fun to read, and pretty much the standard in bridging computer engineering with software development, and is very accessible to anyone I'd say. If you're not a particularly technical person but always wondered about the "magic" of how computers work this is perfect.

It's pretty high-level in terms of abstraction but that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned, you can take the knowledge from this book and apply it universally.

If you're already a CompEng or EE student I'd probably look elsewhere for something a little more applied. CS students however this is perfect for you.

8 people found this helpful

Julius

EXCELLENT PERFECT BOOK!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2018

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I cannot recommend this book enough. DO NOT BUY the kindle version, buy the paperback it is EXCELLENT. It starts off very nicely with Morse Code and very clearly and understandably explains the principles of what defines a code and how Morse code and binary works in a very interesting way. It's not a boring read at all, I really enjoy reading this book no nonsense, everything is nicely conveying the important aspects. Beautiful and very rich diagrams conveying the concepts very nicely. I absolutely love this book. It starts right from basics if you've never studied code before or like me want to understand how computers and it's programs work. This book explains the fundamental concepts to enable you to understand computer hardware and software. The paperback is worth every single penny thank you.

13 people found this helpful

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