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

by Charles Petzold (Author)

383 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

Amazon.com Review

Charles Petzold's latest book, Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, 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.

The real value of Code 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 Code, he helps readers appreciate it. --David Wall

Topics covered: 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 1.1 x 8.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 383 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > AI & Machine Learning > Machine Theory
- #5 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business Technology > Software > Enterprise Applications
- #12 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development

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ByMike H.on 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.

0Comment 46 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Great for compu-newbs everywhere.

BySamon September 2, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is very approachable, easy to digest and rich with details and information. Charles Petzold starts off slow with explanations of various types of codes and uses ancient technology (and by that I mean ye olde telegraph machine) to introduce the reader to Computer Science concepts. Continuously building upon information introduced in the book you develop a deep intellectual relationship with Charles rich with context, sometimes I was thinking "Ey, what's this bugger gettin at ere" and then BAM I had suddenly built 16K of ram in my imagination. It's also filled with tiny interesting details about the world of computing. Great for compu-newbs everywhere.

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Sometimes convoluted, but always informative summary of how computers 'work'

ByRyan Spenceron October 19, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I have worked with computers since I was young and to this day I am still entwined with them. However, there were certainly still little mysteries of their functioning I had simply glossed over, and now that I am changing careers to a code-oriented position, I took it upon myself to use this as a refresher's course of sorts. Petzold breaks the topic of computer mechanics into three parts: Firstly, Petzold discusses the nature of codes (as in the means for communication), electricity, and other essential basics that open the door for what could be considered the 'second' section of the book in which Petzold builds a computer 'from the ground up'. Using some basic examples of circuitry he has previously explained he explains the nature of logic gates and relays, their relativity and use to one another, and how these parts make a very basic and initial 'adding machine' or 'computer' when combined in certain ways using certain idiosyncrasies of circuitry structure. The convolution sets in about this time as some chapters can be kind of complicated by means of items such as logic gate tables, but don't be dismayed by my words because pressing on will not leave you baffled as Petzold still does a rather fantastic job summarizing the key points at good times. Finally, the book ends on a few chapters explaining the history of, at the time of him writing the book, 'current' computer technology. It is obvious the book has not been updated in awhile, but since I did grow up about the same time Petzold wrote this book (the reign of the 3.5 floppy diskette), understanding what he was talking about was not totally baffling. In fact, it's quite a time capsule for computer technology in a certain way, and he does mention some things (e.g. DVDs, fiber optic cables) that, in his words, might come into fruition and commonplace use in the future, and, well, have. Fundamentally, I left having read code with a very clear idea of what's going on in a computer, that isn't too complicated or hard to envision and strongly recommend this to anyone who doesn't entirely 'get' the basic ideas / workings of the fundamental parts of a computer system. Petzold never fails to use metaphors in proper time and good taste, and I feel the predominance of positive reviews (and references from other programmers / computer science individuals marking this text as a fundamental) would agree that this is a solid explanatory work.

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Astoundingly Brilliant, and fairly easy to grasp

ByDavidon May 2, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

In Code, the author - Charles Petzold - builds a computer from the ground up. The concepts he presented were fairly easy to grasp. That's not to say that it didn't take a bit of thinking or reviewing to understand everything completely, because it did. But overall it was fairly simple. I rated this book five stars out of five, but I shouldn't say that this book was perfect, because it was not. I found that perhaps the biggest obstacle to understanding some of the concepts was that the author would go on sometimes irrelevant and untimely tangents. Funny thing is - I didn't notice this until I found myself having to review some of the concepts from previous chapters. Another negative thing I found was when he introduced Machine Code, to the chip you have built up to that point, the author makes too much of a jump, it would have been a lot more helpful if he would have explained at least some of the hardware that made this machine code possible. It wasn't until I went back to this chapter to think over this concept and how it was possible that I understood how the machine codes could work. But overall I love this book (although I haven't finished the last chapter quite yet), I now understand the basics of how a computer works.

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Most recent customer reviews

Whether you want to code or not, read this book!

Doesn't matter how smart or stupid you think you are. You will better understand how most of the technology that moves our world works and how it evolved.

Published 7 days ago by Brian S.

Good knowledge

It's a good read. Some chapters can be quite technical but the overall knowledge is very good. I highly recommend.

Published 14 days ago by B

Very interesting!

This book takes a look at the most basic building blocks of modern technology.

Published 1 month ago by Ronal D

The book provides a perfect level of details for me

Straightforward and enjoyable read. The book provides a perfect level of details for me.

Knowledge of history brings more structure and understanding of computer...Read more

Published 1 month ago by Anton Kril

Interesting "story" on the development of computers

Great book - style is told a bit in a story format, but more importantly the topics are deliberately introduced in a certain order that helps the reading stay interesting.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Great book. A must buy

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Better than expected

I have read 32 pages.Great balance between history and theory of computers.Highly recommend for coders even if you aren't computer scientist.Read more

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Very good read

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...Read more

Published 1 month ago by Yohannes

Drags out the circuitry angle a bit too much

The book starts out slow with the definitions of bits bytes etc.
The demonstration of of required circuitry is absolutely painful.
But, it speeds up at the end.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Great history, but stops around 1999...

The first 3/4 of the book is an excellent history that takes the reader through the evolution of electronic systems and the computer.Read more

Published 1 month ago by A. Laxson

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