Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
37 used & new from £4.55

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Code: The Hidden Language (DV-Undefined)
 
 

Code: The Hidden Language (DV-Undefined) (Paperback)

by Charles Petzold (Author) "You're 10 years old ..." (more)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.49
Price: £8.44 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £6.05 (42%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 5 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 22? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
25 new from £7.54 12 used from £4.55
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 6 used & new from £8.21

Frequently Bought Together

Code: The Hidden Language (DV-Undefined) + The Elements of C# Style + Computer Science Illuminated
Price For All Three: £49.27

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Elements of C# Style

The Elements of C# Style

by Kenneth Baldwin
£10.44
The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine

The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine

by Charles Petzold
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £12.34
Computer Science Illuminated

Computer Science Illuminated

by Nell Dale
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £30.39
Bad Science

Bad Science

by Ben Goldacre
4.6 out of 5 stars (146)  £3.60
Programming in the Key of C#: A Primer for Aspiring Programmers (Pro-Developer)

Programming in the Key of C#: A Primer for Aspiring Programmers (Pro-Developer)

by Charles Petzold
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £22.79
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 396 pages
  • Publisher: MICROSOFT PRESS; 2nd Revised edition edition (1 Dec 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0735611319
  • ISBN-13: 978-0735611313
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 15.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 139,488 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #36 in  Books > Computing & Internet > Computer Science > Architecture & Microprocessors > Architecture & Logic

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
DVD Region Unlock £2.89
   www.DVD-Unlocking.co.uk    Play DVD's From Any Region On Your Current DVD Player With Our Codes 
  
 

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Crossing over into general-interest non-fiction from his popular programming manuals, Charles Petzold has written Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. It's a carefully written, carefully researched gem that will appeal to anyone who wants to understand computer technology at its most essential levels. Readers learn about number systems(decimal, octal, binary and all that) through Petzold's patient (and frequently entertaining) prose, 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 the stories of people trying to find ways to communicate with (and by means of) mechanical and electrical devices. It's a fascinating progression of technologies and the author presents a clear statement of how they fit together.

The real value of Code is in its explanations of technologies that have been obscured for years behind fancy user interfaces and programming environments that, 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 Motorola6800 processors. He walks the reader through the process of performing various operations with each chip, explaining which op codes poke which values into which registers along the way. Petzold knows that the hidden language of computers exhibits real beauty. In Code, he helps his 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.

Product Description
Paperback Edition 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. 


Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
You're 10 years old. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
computers
hardware
computer science
code
solid state
software development
software
signals
mad wise angry agriculture passif
hexadecimal
hardware software interaction

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars how a computer REALLY works, 25 April 2002
This is the only book I've found which REALLY tells the story of how computers work in a simple and easy to read form. That's not to say that anything has been watered down - this is the real stuff, and occasionally it gets a little heavy, but it fills in a much needed gap. Most books either cover digital electronics, or computer architecture, and few explain the leap that you need to make to get from one to the other.

On the negative side, the machine design is a little dated, and a register transfer architecture might have worked better.

The sections on operating systems are simply not up to the standard of the rest of the book, but the book is work it for the rest anyway.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A genuinely brilliant book, 9 April 2007
Charles Petzold is an excellent writer, and he gets to grips with difficult material in a way that makes it accessible for the uninitiated. I have worked as a computer programmer for years, but, having grown up with 'high level' programming languages, most of the material here was new to me. The book will fill in some very important gaps for a lot of IT professionals. Meanwhile, it is perfectly readable for someone completely new to the subject (a couple of chapters will be tough going, but you'll get it if you persist).

Top marks.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Interest, 26 Feb 2000
By cadarn@ndirect.co.uk (Sussex, England) - See all my reviews
This book is full of little pieces of useless but fascinating information, and takes you through the evolution of the PC in an amusing and informative way. A perfect book to lose a weekend to.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellant book
This is an excellant book! The author starts by explaining how a flashlight works and slowly builds from this, explaining how switches are combined to create logic gates, how... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2001 by elvis@gtemail.net

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent exposition of an interesting subject
Petzold explains the architecture of computing systems by deriving from first principles, as it were; starting off with simple concepts such as telegraph relays and morse code, he... Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for techno nostalgia
This is a well written and entertaining read covering the evolution of modern day hardware and software. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2000

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Computer Architecture: Software...

Computer Architecture: Software...

With the new developments in computer architecture, fairly recent... Read more
£81.70

Find similar items

 

More From Charles Petzold

The Annotated Turing...

The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour...

Programming Legend Charles Petzold unlocks the secrets of the... Read more
£19.99 £12.34

 

Boys Smell

Lynx Africa Body Spray and After Shave Gift set
But we make sure they smell good...

Discover male grooming at Amazon.co.uk

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates