The Secret Life of Programs Understand Computers — Craft Better Code

Q: Who is the author of "The Secret Life of Programs Understand Computers -- Craft Better Code"?

"The Secret Life of Programs Understand Computers -- Craft Better Code" is credited to Jonathan E. Steinhart.

Cover of The Secret Life of Programs Understand Computers -- Craft Better Code by Jonathan E. Steinhart

Author: Jonathan E. Steinhart

Publisher: No Starch Press

Year: 2019

Language: en

Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9781593279707

ISBN-10: 1593279701

Dimensions:

Height: 9.26 Inches

Length: 7.06 Inches

Weight: 2.21344111048 Pounds

Width: 1.15 Inches

Dewey Decimal: 005.1–dc23

Editorial overview Touché

The Secret Life of Programs: Understand Computers — Craft Better Code by Jonathan E. Steinhart, published by No Starch Press on August 6, 2019, is a comprehensive guide that delves into the foundational technologies behind computer programs. This 504-page book is written in English and serves as a primer for those looking to understand the intricate workings of computer hardware, software behavior, and the underlying principles that enable programs to function effectively.

Readers will find an in-depth exploration of essential topics such as computer architecture, combinatorial logic, and input/output processes. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding how software interacts with hardware to enhance performance and reduce bugs. Steinhart covers practical aspects of programming, including project design and maintenance, while also addressing critical areas like computer security and machine intelligence. This edition aims to equip coders with the knowledge needed to craft more efficient and reliable code by revealing what truly happens when their programs run on a machine.

Official synopsis Publisher

A primer on the underlying technologies that allow computer programs to work. Covers topics like computer hardware, combinatorial logic, sequential logic, computer architecture, computer anatomy, and Input/Output.

Many coders are unfamiliar with the underlying technologies that make their programs run. But why should you care when your code appears to work? Because you want it to run well and not be riddled with hard-to-find bugs. You don’t want to be in the news because your code had a security problem.

Lots of technical detail is available online but it’s not organized or collected into a convenient place. In The Secret Life of Programs, veteran engineer Jonathan E. Steinhart explores–in depth–the foundational concepts that underlie the machine. Subjects like computer hardware, how software behaves on hardware, as well as how people have solved problems using technology over time.

You’ll learn:

How the real world is converted into a form that computers understand, like bits, logic, numbers, text, and colors

The fundamental building blocks that make up a computer including logic gates, adders, decoders, registers, and memory

Why designing programs to match computer hardware, especially memory, improves performance

How programs are converted into machine language that computers understand

How software building blocks are combined to create programs like web browsers

Clever tricks for making programs more efficient, like loop invariance, strength reduction, and recursive subdivision

The fundamentals of computer security and machine intelligence

Project design, documentation, scheduling, portability, maintenance, and other practical programming realities.

Learn what really happens when your code runs on the machine and you’ll learn to craft better, more efficient code.