Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Charles Petzold

Oct 2000 · Microsoft Press

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

I never really understood binary or hexadecimal (or Braille!) until I read this book. Very good analogies used to help you understand how computers count and do mathematics. By the end you feel like you could build your own rudimentary CPU out of old telegraph relays...

I'm reading this book, and I had to say many thanks to those kind of writters. It helps to understand how things was settled to bring computer to life in an easy to read manner. Hardware and Software are greatly described.

Amazing journey starting from elementary school circuit knowledge, touches every aspect of a computer, gives answer to how it works, defines every new term, emphasis it until you learn. I feel that I have more solid understanding, thanks to the author, and all others who have effort.

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.