code charles petzold review

With Code, Petzold sets out to inform a general audience about the inner workings of computers. It leads you from the very basics like morse & braille codes to boolean algebra and various numeric systems, from simple tiny electric circuits which bulb the lamp to primitive adding machine (built from relays, hehe), up to history of development and en. It is a great book, I demystified some thoughts I had about software architecture. Just finished reading my b-day gift, the 'Code' by Charles Petzold - probably the best engineering book I've ever read. Charles Petzold has been writing about programming for Windows-based operating systems for 24 years. Start by marking “Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software” as Want to Read: Error rating book. 1990s computers) and the final chapter on the graphical revolution goes through way too much, way too fast to be of any use. I can now look around at all the electronics in my house and feel like I know what’s fundamentally going on. Code has no drawings of trains carrying a cargo of zeros and ones. I only read this book because it was quoted as a must read by Joel Spolsky on a stackexchange answer about how to go about learning programming (and finding out if you want/should be a programmer). The route between those two points is the interesting part, and there was some parts that I foudn really illuminating and important. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software (1999) is a book by Charles Petzold that seeks to teach how personal computers work at a hardware and software level. By saying 'engineering', I mean it. He takes you on an exciting journey, through Braille Code, Morse Code, Telegraph Relays, Logic Gates, Flip-Flops, seamlessly from one to the other, each revealing a powerful concept. But without little drawings of trains carrying a cargo of zeros and ones. Much appreciated, thank you! As you’ll probably know if you’ve read many articles on this site: I’m a computer programmer and general ‘geek’. !!! Availability - Hardcover The hardcover edition of this book is out of print. 1990s computers) and the final chapter on the graphical revolution goes through way too much, way too fast to be of any use. Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). Oh how I love this book. When you later need to restore the contents of these registers, use the POP instructions in It is one of those rare books that is suitable for a very wide range of audiences – from those with almost no knowledge of the subject at all (it starts from the very beginning, so that isn’t a problem) right up to those who are experienced programmers and know some of it (they will still find a lot they don’t know, and realise a lot of things). It does at points get pretty deep into the weeds but I really appreciated the author's efforts to provide such an exhaustive dive into how computers w. Wow. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are not makers of history. If you know a better one, I want to read it. Availability - Hardcover The hardcover edition of this book is out of print. Knowledge is empowering! The slow unfolding of how computers are built actually work was extremely fascinating - from simple lightbulb circuits to logic gates to RAM to keyboards and monitors. Charles Petzold has been writing about Windows programming for 25 years. October 11th 2000 I can now look around at all the electronics in my house and feel like I know what’s fundamentally going on. Overall, I loved it and will surely be recommending it to anyone who asks how computers work. Of course, the book continues past page 260, going on to cover topics including input and output (from keyboards and to the screen), high and low level programming languages, graphics, multimedia and more. This book should be a pre-requisite for introductory CS classes. Metaphors and similes are wonderful literary devices but they do nothing but obscure the beauty of technology.”, “In 1948, while working for Bell Telephone Laboratories, he published a paper in the Bell System Technical Journal entitled "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" that not only introduced the word bit in print but established a field of study today known as information theory. It does at points get pretty deep into the weeds but I really appreciated the author's efforts to provide such an exhaustive dive into how computers work (and I regained much of my awe at these machines we take so for granted nowadays). The benefits of an academic website « Robin's Blog, Pint + SQLAlchemy = Unit consistency and enforcement in your database, Creating an email service for my son’s childhood memories with Python. petzold-pw5e. Summary: This book takes you all the way from Morse Code to a fully working computer, explaining everything along the way.What’s more, it’s a great read too! Almost makes me want to try again (*almost*). Information theory is concerned with transmitting digital information in the presence of noise (which usually prevents all the information from getting through) and how to compensate for that. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Code at Amazon.com. This week's BART book of the week is Charles Petzold's Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, recommended to me by my awesome coworker Dan Tsui. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. While I did enjoy the later chapters as well, much of it felt so rushed compared to the earlier, slower pace of the book. I feel like I've learned a lot by reading this book, especially since we had no relevant computer architecture courses in college. A book about computers “without pictures of trains carrying a cargo of zeroes and ones” — the absolute no-nonsense book on the internals of the computer. For example, I didn't understand hexadecimal numbers (or indeed what base 4, base 8, etc) numbers meant before I read this book. In CODE, they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other. I wish I had had this book back when I was taking my first Computer Architecture course in college! Robin's Blog Review: Code – The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold December 29, 2012. He continues with a potted history of transistors, microchips, RAM, ROM, character encoding and all sorts of other fun stuff. Just finished reading my b-day gift, the 'Code' by Charles Petzold - probably the best engineering book I've ever read. Welcome back. Now I do. With a desire to learn how the high level code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) Book Review: Code by Charles Petzold Charles Petzold is perhaps best known for his books on programming Windows applications. The book reminds me of the courses that students usually have during the first year of the University. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. When programmers talk about the timeless books that will always be relevant, certain classics always come up: The Mythical Man Month, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Design Patterns, Refactoring, Code Complete, and others. 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. The majority of the book, however, is great - I had never really delved into logic gates and circuitry, so it was truly eye-opening even if I couldn't fully understand some parts. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold 2020-07-08 Leave a comment If you have been reading my book reviews, you know that I like history. While Petzold does assume the reader is starting from scratch, I think it would be easier to follow later on if you had some background in computers/technology. Recommended for anyone who would really like to understand the basic concepts behind computer technology, but doesn't want to go back to graduate school. Review of CODE by Charles Petzold I recently read CODE – The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. While that chapter was fairly thorough, when I got to later chapters and realized I couldn't quite grok what was going on in these chips, it was hard for me to tell whether I was holding myself back by not fully understanding the concepts of Chapter 17, or if Petzold was simply glossing over some of the details that might have clued me in. In a way, this is a perfect book on the topic. This is introduced almost entirely from scratch – explaining how circuits work, what voltage is, how batteries work etc – but it actually went beyond my previous knowledge in electricity fairly quickly, and taught me much of interest. But remember: Authors receive royalties only … Required fields are marked *. Definitely one of the greats. This book basicaly tries to take you from the very basics of how to encode information, such as how binary is used to represent complex information, to understanding how a computer uses information like this to perform intricate operations. I really liked the gradual introduction to concepts of increasing complexity where each builds on the one before it. I LOVE this book. If you ever wondered how a computer worked then buy this and read it – even if you think you already know (unless you’re, you know, a chip designer at Intel or something! By saying 'engineering', I mean it. 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. The 5th edition Programming Windows was published in 1998 in the era of Windows 98, Windows NT and Internet Explorer 4. Your email address will not be published. View code-charles-petzold-27.pdf from MATH 212 at San Mateo High. I have not read those, but I can’t imagine they will age nearly as well as Code has. In brief: be prepared to skim through at least 25% of this book! The discussion of electricity for sending messages leads into the history of telegraph networks, and then the concept of relays. I really enjoyed most of this book. While that chapter was fairly thorough, when I got to later chapters and realized I couldn't quite grok what was going on in these chips, it was hard for me to tell whether I was holding myself back by not fully understanding the concepts of Chapter 17, or if Petzold was simply glossing over some of the details that might have clued m. This was a wonderful non-fiction read, especially the first 15 or so chapters. Unfortunately, parts of this book seem quite dated (most anything discussing "contemporary" technology, i.e. Overall, I loved it and will surely be recommending it to anyone who asks how computers, This book is the perfect depth for novices but also people who are “in tech” and don’t really understand how it all works (like me). 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. Here you can start to see how this is moving towards a computer…. Electricity and electrical circuits are introduced when describing how you might communicate with another friend whose window you can’t see from yours. Vote for your favourite Australian book of 2020! The book is very intriguing from the start, beginning with the earliest forms of code (Morse, Braille, etc.). I can think of very few issues with this book – although the last chapter does read rather strangely, as if the author was trying to fit far too much into far too little space (trying to cover multimedia, networking, WIMP interfaces and more in one chapter is a bit of a tall order though! Booktopia has Code, The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. The language of computer hardware and software is not particularly well hidden in my experience. Soon he was busy writing little 300-500 byte .COM file utilities for PC Magazine. Wow. You may be able to obtain copies of the hardcover edition from online booksellers listed on my Books page. I start getting the math, the logic behind all this technology that has become pretty much the center of my life today. As Mr. Petzold states in the preface, Code is “a unique journey through the evolution of the digital technologies that define the modern age.” So, how computers work? Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. © 2021 Robin's Blog | powered by WordPress This book has really taught me a lot, despite the fact that many of the later chapters lost me somewhat; it felt like it became much more complicated and hard to follow after the earlier chapters, which were great, slowly paced and well explained. From logic gates, to adding circuits and subtracting circuits and from clocks to flip-flops and RAM you gradually work up to a full, programmable computer which you have basically built by page 260! If you work with computers and didn't read this book, you are lame. I knew a fair bit – but I learnt a huge amount from reading it, and it helped me gain a full understanding of what is going on when I write computer programs – right down to the level of the electricity inside the processor. The last chapter of the book felt a bit rushed and ended abruptly, but maybe that’s just my wanting the book to go on longer/end at present day. One - in this case one in how the Queen would use this - cannot really talk about this book without comparing it to. By the end of the book I was itching to buy lots of relays or transformers and make a computer on my living room table! The last chapter of the book felt a bit rushed and ended abruptly, but maybe that’s just my wanting the book to go on longer/end at present day. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Petzold has a great writer's voice and a true talent for making a complicated subject fun to learn. In the preface to the 2000 softcover edition, Petzold wrote that his goal was for readers to understand how computers work at a concrete level that "just might even rival that of electrical engineers and programmers". 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. I didn't really. So I've reread this book once more because I felt it was great, yet I could not give it 5/5 before. Overall: a great read, very interesting and very educational. Whenever circuits are drawn in the book – from here onwards – they are shown with the wires that have current in them in red, making it very easy to see what is going on. And that's coming from someone who already thought they "sorta" understood how it worked. Shannon was also well known at Bell Labs for riding a unicycle and juggling simultaneously.”. Chapter 17 ("Automation"), however, was where I began to feel a bit in over my head. Thank you for such an awesome book! Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software - Ebook written by Charles Petzold. Book Review: Code by Charles Petzold. Scott Hanselman says “This book should really be required reading in any CS101 class. It's both a narrative history of Computer Science and a brilliant introduction to systems and programming. Basically, this book designs and builds a basic computer by introducing in each chapter a concept or a technology used inside computers. We’d love your help. This book is quite incredible. shift characters and escape characters – both of which Braille has). Despite the depth, I tried to make the trip as comfortable as possible. CODE: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. Summary: This book takes you all the way from Morse Code to a fully working computer, explaining everything along the way. For example, I didn't understand hexadecimal numbers (or indeed what base 4, base 8, etc) numbers meant before I read this boo. This was a wonderful non-fiction read, especially the first 15 or so chapters. And Petzold helps me to walk inside an electrical circuit, a telephone, a telegraph, an adding machine, a computer, and to understand the basics behind the design, of what is going on inside. Raise your hand if you think metaphors and analogies should be used sparingly. Charles doesnt try to explain through high level metaphors (that do a poor job of capturing the truth -- I am frustrated after picking up another apparently interesting physics book only to find it contains no math), rather, he slowly builds on simple examples. Written in 1999, the book yet actual nowadays (well, there are funny moments regarding computers' capacity and performance, and probably some other stuff but those don't matter much). To see what your friends thought of this book. 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