The 1st edition of this book was very influential for a generation (or more) of engineers. I can't wait to see how it's evolved and what I learn reading a new edition through again.
“Code” 2nd Edition
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Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#12This book was absolutely essential when I was first sinking my teeth into software programming. Things that seemed either arbitrary or completely mysterious suddenly made sense now that I had a contextual understanding of how computers worked . Without having that knowledge, I think my career would have been vastly more difficult and frustrating. While I understand many “get started programming” books/tutorials put a…
Same. I think some of us learn best by having a map of the territory and an understanding of how everything all fits together first. Having that better helps us deep-dive into and master specific areas. This one single book provides that map.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#13Looking back it's really strange that nowhere in our CS/Soft Eng. curriculum is it covered exactly what is meant by the term "abstraction" when it comes to how a computer works. That it's all, after all, shuffling of electrons (underlying MOSFET chemistry notwithstanding) and signals is the missing link.
There's other books out there, and Ben Eater's website, that indepth show how to construct processor, gates, store "memory", and so on.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#14Great book -- read it when I was a teenager -- but one thing that I think makes the book a bit harder to explain to smaller kids these days is the use of relays for explaining lots of things. Its a great concept to explain things but it does tend to cause a bit of confusing for younger kids who may not have played with electromagnets as much as kids from 20-30 years ago. Not sure what to replace relays with but maybe having kids watch a super easy to understand video about how relays work would help make the book easier to understand for say like an 8 year old reading the book.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#15Great book -- read it when I was a teenager -- but one thing that I think makes the book a bit harder to explain to smaller kids these days is the use of relays for explaining lots of things. Its a great concept to explain things but it does tend to cause a bit of confusing for younger kids who may not have played with electromagnets as much as kids from 20-30 years ago. Not sure what to replace relays with but maybe…
very easily substitute using FETs. Essentially the same as relays and BJTs but much easier to control logic FETs than BJTs.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#16This book (1st edition, at least) is astonishing. Perhaps the best book for coders that I’ve ever read. I recommend it to all the HN crowd. Reading it, I felt like I actually understood how computers worked, right down to the “electricity going through wires” level and lower, and how that builds up to if-then statements, etc, in a high-level language.
The content is something we learn in universities, even deeper.
I think it's good for self taught programmers
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#17Great book -- read it when I was a teenager -- but one thing that I think makes the book a bit harder to explain to smaller kids these days is the use of relays for explaining lots of things. Its a great concept to explain things but it does tend to cause a bit of confusing for younger kids who may not have played with electromagnets as much as kids from 20-30 years ago. Not sure what to replace relays with but maybe…
My kids played a lot with "relays" in Minecraft using Redstone. Not quite the same, though!
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#18Great book. It might be time to replace my first edition hardcover. Looking forward to the follow-up blog post with the more detailed info on the updated content.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#19My favorite Petzold book is 'Programming Windows 95'
I got the Fifth Edition. A book that's served me well. Learning the Win32 API, holding open doors, improvised weapon, it does it all.
Re: “Code” 2nd Edition
#20>The iconic graphic still displays the letters CODE in Braille, Morse code, and ASCII.
All you have to do is add a '0' to the front of each ASCII sequence to make them 8 bits instead of 7 bits, and then they will be UTF-8 encoded.