book

Write Great Code, Volume 1, 2nd Edition

by Randall Hyde

August 2020

Intermediate to advanced

472 pages

13h 37m

English

No Starch Press

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1.1 The Write Great Code Series1.2 What This Book Covers1.3 Assumptions This Book Makes1.4 Characteristics of Great Code1.5 The Environment for This Book1.6 Additional Tips1.7 For More Information
2.1 What Is a Number?2.2 Numbering Systems2.3 Numeric/String Conversions2.4 Internal Numeric Representation2.5 Signed and Unsigned Numbers2.6 Useful Properties of Binary Numbers2.7 Sign Extension, Zero Extension, and Contraction2.8 Saturation2.9 Binary-Coded Decimal Representation2.10 Fixed-Point Representation2.11 Scaled Numeric Formats2.12 Rational Representation2.13 For More Information

3.1 Arithmetic Operations on Binary and Hexadecimal Numbers3.2 Logical Operations on Bits3.3 Logical Operations on Binary Numbers and Bit Strings3.4 Useful Bit Operations3.5 Shifts and Rotates3.6 Bit Fields and Packed Data3.7 Packing and Unpacking Data3.8 For More Information
4.1 Introduction to Floating-Point Arithmetic4.2 IEEE Floating-Point Formats4.3 Normalization and Denormalized Values4.4 Rounding4.5 Special Floating-Point Values4.6 Floating-Point Exceptions4.7 Floating-Point Operations4.8 For More Information
5.1 Character Data5.2 Character Strings5.3 Character Set Data Types5.4 Designing Your Own Character Set5.5 For More Information
6.1 The Basic System Components6.2 Physical Organization of Memory6.3 Big-Endian vs. Little-Endian Organization6.4 The System Clock6.5 CPU Memory Access6.6 For More Information
7.1 Pointer Types7.2 Arrays7.3 Records/Structures7.4 Discriminant Unions7.5 Classes7.6 Classes in C++7.7 Classes in Java7.8 Classes in Swift7.9 Protocols and Interfaces7.10 Generics and Templates7.11 For More Information
8.1 Boolean Algebra8.2 Boolean Functions and Truth Tables8.3 Function Numbers8.4 Algebraic Manipulation of Boolean Expressions8.5 Canonical Forms8.6 Simplification of Boolean Functions8.7 What Does This Have to Do with Computers, Anyway?8.8 For More Information
9.1 Basic CPU Design9.2 Decoding and Executing Instructions: Random Logic vs. Microcode9.3 Executing Instructions, Step by Step9.4 RISC vs. CISC: Improving Performance by Executing More, Faster, Instructions9.5 Parallelism: The Key to Faster Processing9.6 For More Information
10.1 The Importance of Instruction Set Design10.2 Basic Instruction Design Goals10.3 The Y86 Hypothetical Processor10.4 Encoding 80x86 Instructions10.5 Implications of Instruction Set Design to the Programmer10.6 For More Information
11.1 The Memory Hierarchy11.2 How the Memory Hierarchy Operates11.3 Relative Performance of Memory Subsystems11.4 Cache Architecture11.5 NUMA and Peripheral Devices11.6 Virtual Memory, Memory Protection, and Paging11.7 Writing Software That Is Cognizant of the Memory Hierarchy11.8 Runtime Memory Organization11.9 For More Information
12.1 Connecting a CPU to the Outside World12.2 Other Ways to Connect Ports to the System12.3 I/O Mechanisms12.4 I/O Speed Hierarchy12.5 System Buses and Data Transfer Rates12.6 Buffering12.7 Handshaking12.8 Timeouts on an I/O Port12.9 Interrupts and Polled I/O12.10 Protected-Mode Operation and Device Drivers12.11 For More Information
13.1 The Small Computer System Interface13.2 The IDE/ATA Interface13.3 The Universal Serial Bus13.4 For More Information
14.1 Disk Drives14.2 Tape Drives14.3 Flash Storage14.4 RAM Disks14.5 Solid-State Drives14.6 Hybrid Drives14.7 Filesystems on Mass Storage Devices14.8 Writing Software That Manipulates Data on a Mass Storage Device14.9 For More Information
15.1 Exploring Specific PC Peripheral Devices15.2 Mice, Trackpads, and Other Pointing Devices15.3 Joysticks and Game Controllers15.4 Sound Cards15.5 For More Information

Content preview from Write Great Code, Volume 1, 2nd Edition

AFTERWORD: THINKING LOW-LEVEL, WRITING HIGH-LEVEL

The goal of this book was to get you thinking at the machine level. One way to force yourself to write code at this level is to write your applications in assembly language. When you write code statement by statement in assembly language, you get a pretty good idea of the cost associated with each one.

Unfortunately, using assembly language isn’t a realistic solution for most applications. The disadvantages of assembly language have been well publicized (and exaggerated) over the past several decades, and as a result many people have decided assembly isn’t an option for them.

Unlike writing code ...