Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Charles Petzold did the impossible: he managed to explain how the core of modern tech works in one book, in a simple way, starting off with a light bulb going all the way to loops.Highly recommended book for everyone, can be read even without prior technical knowledge.I only wish someone told me about this book earlier.P.S. I recommend the second edition as it has some nice additions, e.g. how a QR code works.

Clear explanation by the author. Walkthrough all the concepts without skipping any difficults part. Daunting task explaining the inner workings of a CPU but the author clearly succeeded.

I found this book to be both entertaining and extremely informative. The author takes you from understanding how humans have encoded information since before the age of computers, through electronic circuitry, all the way to an overview of how programming languages interact with this hardware. Definitely recommend

A comprehensive introduction to how computers work, even for non-CS people. It covers topics from the underlying binary code to architecting a CPU. I read the 1st edition many years ago. This new edition added more content on CPU instruction sets, which I think completes the topic.

Love this book however the reason for my rating is the build quality of the book is terrible.Thin translucent plastic-like pages with multiple creases and print issues throughout. As a result the print is also shiny.I returned the first one as these issues were so bad it was illegible, but there are still issues with the replacement.For a book of this price, you would expect much better build quallity overall.

Im loving every bit of this book, started with the digital version then after reaching chapter 4 I decided that i must get the physical copy, yes its that good. The author has a magical way of making complex subjects much easier to digest and understand.I’m a first year EEE student, but I highly recommend this book to every STEM student and not just those with electrical and computers/programming interests.

the author did phenomenal job in simplifying complex subject, it is interesting how he guide the reader from the early innovations that culminated into the "Code" we use for granted now.

Code is one of those books written by someone who doesn’t assume anything about the reader.The author explain topics in a nice and polite way. No patronising. He clearly knows a lot but he doesn’t use that against the reader. Instead he elevates the reader such that it’s hard to put the book down.I was familiar with all the concepts presented and explained but after reading Code, they became even clearer in my mind.Buy it!