Write Great Code, Volume 2: Thinking Low-Level, Writing High-Level | 
 enlarge | Author: Randall Hyde
Publisher: No Starch Press
Category: Book
List Price: $44.95
Buy New: $17.93
You Save: $27.02 (60%)
New (34) Used (11) from $16.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 240183
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 640
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7 x 1.7
ISBN: 1593270658
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.1
EAN: 9781593270650
ASIN: 1593270658
Publication Date: March 18, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - no remainder mark! SUPER-FAST shipping! *CHRISTMAS* special! EXPEDITED ship available. EXTRA COPIES. *Real-person* customer service. 5-STAR seller: 10,000+ feedbacks! 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The second volume in the Write Great Code series supplies the critical information that today's computer science students don't often get from college and university courses: How to carefully choose their high-level language statements to produce efficient code. Write Great Code, Volume 2: Thinking Low-Level, Writing High-Level, teaches software engineers how compilers translate high-level language statements and data structures into machine code. Armed with this knowledge, a software engineer can make an informed choice concerning the use of those high-level structures to help the compiler produce far better machine code--all without having to give up the productivity and portability benefits of using a high-level language.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 This is an amazing book. September 30, 2008
This book was required for a college course, and I must say, I'm glad it was. The book is greatly informative on all topics, and brings up relative points I had never thought of on programming. I'd highly recommend this book.
Overall, totally worth it August 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read the first volume of this book, and it was a great, informative read. After volume 2, I have this to say:
This book is not a cookbook for writing better code. Hyde explains why certain programming constructs are better than others (and in what cases), and backs it up with evidence from the assembly code (that is the entire premise of the book). Finally, solid proof of (and against) what I've been hearing all along from instructors and other programmers on message boards or face-to-face communication. That in mind, it would have been nice to have a summary of the tips at the end of the chapters, or the end of the book, as a quick-reference kind of thing. These concepts are the perfect thing to consider when fine-tuning your code. I take the stance that if you fine-tune as you go, you have less work later, so I took notes as I read and have started implementing changes for the better (with evidence that it is better) in some of my coding.
Does anyone write code in Pascal anymore? Seriously? Hyde discusses examples in C/C++ and Pascal for the most part (favoring Pascal, by my estimation), so it is nice that the book is language-independent for the reader. The assembly examples in the book are in 80x86 and PowerPC...I think it would have been better to release two versions of this book, one where the assembly is 80x86 (because it is so ubiquitous, if for no other reason), and then another where the assembly is in PowerPC assembly. I didn't pick this up to become an assembly language programmer, and quite frankly, the PowerPC examples just confused me. It looks like my cat stepped on my keyboard and it appeared in print.
The tone of the text is sometimes condescending (especially in the first 5-6 chapters), with a not-so-subtle "real men only code in assembly" message. It seriously reminds me of my parents/grandparents whining about how hard they had it growing up...walking barefoot to school in the winter...and only having assembly to work with in writing programs.
So by the end of this book, I think I have met Hyde's goal for the readers. I can't sit down and write an assembly program, but I can read enough assembly to compare different versions of my high-level program to say what is better. As the subtitle suggests, I am "thinking low-level" now as I write my programs (in C...which most programmers would call low-level). I suggest "actively" reading this book and coding up a few examples with your compiler and examining the output, following along in the text. Doing that really made the material click for me.
Overall, it's a good book and definitely worth it. This is a long one though, and takes some time to digest. See you in volume 3!
Terific text May 20, 2008
Well, I can't say much that the other reviewers haven't already said. This is a terrific text that very clearly explains how things work in computers, right down to the finest level. Hyde writes in a casual, conversation-like tone (sometimes bordering on poor grammar) that makes this text a lot more stomachable than I would have thought. Typos are minimal (I recall maybe 4 or 5).
Now that I've been through the book (after maybe 2 weeks, at an easy pace), I can't say that I'm going to go write assembly programs. I can say that I know a great deal more about how computers work, and how I can write code that works more harmoniously with computers. My background is mechanical engineering with a ridiculous dose of electrical engineering, so a lot of the concepts presented were review for me (digital circuitry, binary math, etc)...but it is always good to hear the same material again in a different way. As I said before, the casual tone makes the material easy to follow, as well as Hyde's very clear explanations. However, as a mechanical engineer my programming background was just "writing code," i.e. how to get various programs to run correctly. I read the chapter in the text on memory twice- I found that chapter alone to make the book well worth the money to me, as I am currently writing codes that demand every inch of speed and memory that the computer can offer.
So overall, its a good book, worth the money, and worth taking the time to read.
How Software Works November 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How Software Works would also be a great title for this volume. Any high level construct you can think of is analyzed in-depth at a low level. This is great for those interested in reverse engineering or writing cleaner code.
This book is language and hardware neutral. Languages from Pascal to C++ to Visual Basic are covered on hardware from x86 to RISC to embedded systems. No matter what language you code in the innards are laid out for you. The author does a masterful job of the idiosyncrasies of different languages seamlessly without dwelling on the trivial. This book is heavy on assembled code, compilers, and interpreters. It's an absolutely great collection of everything you wanted to know about how software works that you really can't find elsewhere in a single volume.
Although the subject matter is probably dry for some, I found this book surprisingly easy to read due to the clarity of the writing. This is at least as good, or better than volume one. With that said, there are a number of references to volume one, and I do recommend reading volume one first unless you have a solid background in computer architecture.
 The computer book you'll NEVER read.. July 24, 2007
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you're like most IT people out in the workforce today, you've got pressures from all sides - deadlines, keeping current with changes in platforms, hardware, software tools, etc. Gah! It never ends!
So, you pick up these "Write Great Code" books, thinking that you'll be a better programmer.
And it's interesting in a way that you remember when you were just getting into the IT field as a student and later as an employee and maybe now as a consultant or contractor.
But, then you realize that this is like thinking about how your car's components are working while you're driving madly to work on some beltway. Only your skills as a driver can keep you from getting hit by a big semi, not the working knowledge of your V8 engine. Guys who work on their cars on the weekend, know more about them than you do, but hey, it gets you to work and back.
And so, you sigh and put the book down and concentrate on your SQL, or your VB or whatever else keeps you employed.
Why?
Because your users and your manager don't care about what goes on at the machine level. They want the deliverables NOW. The efficiency of your code is of no importance to them, though it is to you.
However, with enough discipline and some thought to what you're doing, you CAN make this book work for you, and get an edge over someone else's sloppy code and maybe even save yourself some programming time.
Because this book is for the guys who are the computer counterparts of the greasy-looking guys on the street who could tell you what's wrong with your car, even if you can't.
|
|
|
