Write Great Code: Volume 1: Understanding the Machine

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 440 pages
• Published by: No Starch Press
• Edition: 1st Edition October 25, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1593270038
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1593270032
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

MacCompanion, January 2005, http://www.maccompanion.com/documents/freeissues/2004/january2005.pdf
5/5 stars, "you will have a greater understanding and appreciation for code that is written efficiently"

Product Description
If you've asked someone the secret to writing efficient, well-written software, the answer that you've probably gotten is "learn assembly language programming." By learning assembly language programming, you learn how the machine really operates and that knowledge will help you write better high-level language code. A dirty little secret assembly language programmers rarely admit to, however, is that what you really need to learn is machine organization, not assembly language programming. Write Great Code Vol I, the first in a series from assembly language expert Randall Hyde, dives right into machine organization without the extra overhead of learning assembly language programming at the same time. And since Write Great Code Vol I concentrates on the machine organization, not assembly language, the reader will learn in greater depth those subjects that are language-independent and of concern to a high level language programmer. Write Great Code Vol I will help programmers make wiser choices with respect to programming statements and data types when writing software, no matter which language they use.

Reader Reviews
As new computer languages arise that have more power, like Java and C#, have you noticed something? Often, someone might learn programming without ever having to know about the architecture of a von Neumann machine. Yet most computers since World War 2 have this design at their very core. Hyde fills in this gap in the education. At one level, you should read it for "culture". It explains the basis of programming. Granted, for most of us, there is often no direct need for understanding how binary arithmetic is implemented. Or why registers can speed up performance. And what is cache memory, really? We finesse our ignorance by invoking libraries that subsume these details. The material that Hyde explains may occasionally be of use. What if you need to write some of these low level procedures in assembler, to reduce a bottleneck? After using a profiler on your runtime code to find the key routines, do you have any idea how to improve matters? Even out of pure intellectual curiosity, you should know what happens at the silicon. Or are you just a wage slave? Programming because you have to? A good programmer who loves to program should know this material. Also, out of pure self interest, you should always burnish your programming skills. To separate you from your peers.