Code: The Hidden Language of
Computer Hardware and Software by
Charles Petzold
Had To Get It Again
Charles Petzolds latest book, Code: The Hidden Language of Computer
Hardware and Software, crosses over into general-interest nonfiction from
his usual programming genre. Its a carefully written, carefully researched
gem that will appeal to anyone who wants to understand computer
technology at its essence. Readers learn about number systems (decimal,
octal, binary, and all that) through Petzolds patient (and frequently
entertaining) prose and then discover the logical systems that are used to
process them. Theres loads of historical information too. From Louis
Brailles development of his eponymous raised-dot code to Intel
Corporations release of its early microprocessors, Petzold presents
stories of people trying to communicate with (and by means of)
mechanical and electrical devices. Its a fascinating progression of
technologies, and Petzold presents a clear statement of how they fit
together. The real value of Code is in its explanation of technologies that

have been obscured for years behind fancy user interfaces and
programming environments, which, 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 Motorola 6800 processors. He walks the reader
through the process of performing various operations with each chip,
explaining which opcodes poke which values into which registers along
the way. Petzold knows that the hidden language of computers exhibits
real beauty. In Code, he helps 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.
Personal Review: Code: The Hidden Language of Computer
Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold
This book is quite possibly the best explanation of how computers work
from a bottom-up perspective I have ever come across. Petzold takes us
on a journey in short, easy-to-read, and occasionally humorous chapters,
staring from two young children passing messages to each other after bed
time with flashlights, all the way up though circuitry, machine language,
memory, and so on. I also enjoyed the historical aspect of Petzold's
presentation. He gives names, dates, and sometimes faces. Personally, I
find it amazing that we humans have come so far in so short a time period
with all our technologies.
Petzold requires no in-depth knowledge of computers from his readers- he
gradually builds up on concepts that are always tied back to everyday
occurrences in your life. Let's take the discussion of Morse code as a
talking point: Sure, you could flash a light bulb once for A, twice for B,
three times for C, and so on, but your fingers would fall off after a few
words. Instead, lets agree to vary the length of time the light is on, and
combine different sequences of light blinks to correspond to different
letters, which is much easier on the fingers, because we make commonly
used letters easier to send. From there, we get into telegraphs, and oh by
the way, that is essentially the same way computers send data. This is
typical of what Petzold does all throughout the book: start with what most
people would call a reasonable solution to a problem, expose its flaws,
then show the more thought-out solution, and then fill in the gaps to tie it
back to modern digital computers.
The book is ten years old now, but is still very relevant...which I find
astounding, given how fast anything to do with computers changes these
days. Petzold barely skims the surface of programming, so if you are
looking for a book strictly on coding, search elsewhere (try the more
software-oriented explanation of computer workings Write Great Code:
Volume 1: Understanding the Machine). The last few chapters do seem to
be a hurried conclusion, but I would attribute this more to the fact that now

that we know how computers work, what we can do with them is an
infinitely broad category, so only a summary discussion is reasonable.
Whether you are a computer scientist or not, I think you will benefit from
this gem of a book- if you are not, then enjoy learning how computers
really work. If you are an established computer scientist, you've probably
seen everything in the book before, but it still warrants your time because
of the clear analogies that are used throughout the book. I know I have had
enough people ask me "how does (insert something about computers)
work?", and I haven't been able to clearly explain the concepts- now I have
some good analogies to use, as well as a book to heartily recommend.
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