The Secret Life of Programs

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.

Jonathan E. Steinhart has designed graphics hardware and software, and built CAD systems, graphics workstations, circuit simulators, power plants, and languages for integrated circuit design. He has consulted for Apple, Intel, Sun, Welch-Allyn, Lulu, and many others.