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Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software Paperback – October 21, 2000

by Charles Petzold (Author)

406 customer reviews

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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.

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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.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Microsoft Press; 1 edition (October 21, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0735611319
ISBN-13: 978-0735611313
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 8.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 406 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > AI & Machine Learning > Machine Theory
- #13 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases & Big Data > Data Processing
- #20 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development

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Mike H.

Buy it, love it, share it.

September 13, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

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.

103 people found this helpful

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Agustin

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

June 17, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

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.

16 people found this helpful

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Yohannes

Very good read

July 24, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

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.

8 people found this helpful

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K. R.

Charles does a great job of connecting those dots on how those two ...

March 25, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Charles Petzold breaks computing down into plain counting. If you can count from 1 to 10 and you have a fascination with computer science (the study of problem solving), then let Charles (re-)teach you how to count from 0 to 1. I was really impressed with this book. Charles takes you from imagining sending Morse code via flashlight signals to your friend across the street all the way to the logic implemented in a processor. Charles does a great job of connecting those dots on how those two things are related. Speaking of dots, Charles shows you how Braille utilizes a binary system. Something either is or it isn't. If it is AND it isn't, then it isn't. Those who read the book OR already understand binary will understand what that means. This is a 5-star book IMO. Get this book if you want to know how a computer really works. From this book, you don't just learn what op-codes and memory addressing are. Charles shows you exactly how these things work to make a computer.

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Amazon Customer

This is a good book. I am teaching a class and using ...

August 21, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a good book. I am teaching a class and using this as the text. It's at a pretty good intro level and many of the students seem to like it a lot. I liked it because it's more of a novel than an actual text, it gives a good background to many of the topics I'm teaching, and I can go in depth into other topics and ideas that are related to the concepts described in the book. I don't cover the whole book and some of the chapters are harder to understand than others, but I do like the book overall.

4 people found this helpful

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Trace Myers

Teaches you about computers in an entertaining way no other book has tried.

February 3, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Understanding what's going on at the core of your code can never hurt, and this is the most interesting way you could ever learn about it. Chapter by chapter, it subtly builds on concepts taught to you in previous chapters.

The book arranges a surprise for you somewhere in each chapter, wherein you realize what you've been learning about is a concrete topic of study. For example: the book teaches you how current passes through a switch and to a light bulb with a simple drawing, then it incrementally builds the diagrams to be more complex, until at some point it's revealed that you know how circuits work, and that you're now fairly familiar with circuit diagrams. From end to end, you begin at Morse code and eventually land on CPU schematics.

2 people found this helpful

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Most recent customer reviews

If you have any interest in Technology, History or both.

The last chapter alone is worth the price of admission. A bit difficult at times, you have to think about it. Crazy I know. It is a book you read bits (pun) at a time.Read more

Published 3 days ago

Yog-Sothoth

Every wonder how you get from electricity to stuff on a screen?

This book will fill that missing link. Cannot recommend enough how much this helps understand on a real fundamental level what happens inside a computer.

Published 15 days ago

Kevin G.

... haven't finished this book yet but it is an amazing read if your into codes or computers or electronics ...

I haven't finished this book yet but it is an amazing read if your into codes or computers or electronics really.

Published 1 month ago

Anant J.

I found parts of this book very boring but it was a good read overall

The book is a little outdated with the more recent content relevant to the early 2000s. The historical information is extremely informative.Read more

Published 2 months ago

Joshua Ansell-mckinnon

Great insights

This was a good book. Lots of history and details of where the technology we use today came from. Easy to read.

Published 2 months ago

Asim Bijarani

Easy to Understand Fundamental Concepts of Digital Logic.

I always wanted to have a book that would teach me the most fundamental workings of a digital circuit- and I find this book amazing because it gives the most basic knowledge...Read more

Customer Video Review

Published 2 months ago

Alberto Velazquez

How the code work inside the computer

I like because he have everything of operation code,Machine LANGUAGE is important to the computer today and understand everything,
Thank you.

Published 3 months ago

Phil Heather

Learn How Computers Work By Building One Using 19th Century Technolgy

Essentially walks you through building a (conceptually) modern computer using technology that existed 140 years ago.Read more

Published 3 months ago

awyd

Five Stars

A great book of information, told like a story.

Published 4 months ago

Magnetic43051

Three Stars

Minus two stars for pronouncing GIF like Jiff. How dare you sir.

Published 4 months ago

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