Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

✍ Scribed by Charles Petzold

• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 392
• Edition: First Paperback Edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 3
Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 6
1 Best Friends......Page 10
2 Codes and Combinations......Page 16
3 Braille and Binary Codes......Page 22
4 Anatomy of a Flashlight......Page 29
5 Seeing Around Comers......Page 39
6 Telegraphs and Relays......Page 47
7 Our Ten Digits......Page 54
8 Alternatives to Ten......Page 61
9 Bit by Bit by Bit......Page 76
10 Logic and Switches......Page 93
11 Gates (Not Bill)......Page 109
12 A Binary Adding Machine......Page 138
13 But What About Subtraction?......Page 150
14 Feedback and Flip-Flops......Page 162
15 Bytes and Hex......Page 187
16 An Assemblage of Memory......Page 197
17 Automation......Page 213
18 From Abaci to Chips......Page 245
19 Two Classic Microprocessors......Page 267
20 ASCD and a Cast of Characters......Page 293
21 Get on the Bus......Page 308
22 The Operating System......Page 327
23 Fixed Point, Floating Point......Page 342
24 Languages High and Low......Page 356
25 The Graphical Revolution......Page 371
Acknowledgments......Page 390