Write Great Code Volume I Understanding the Machine [Paperback]

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.

Acknowledgments;Chapter 1: What You Need to Know to Write Great Code;1.1 1.1 The Write Great Code Series;1.2 1.2 What This Volume Covers;1.3 1.3 Assumptions This Volume Makes;1.4 1.4 Characteristics of Great Code;1.5 1.5 The Environment for This Volume;1.6 1.6 For More Information;Chapter 2: Numeric Representation;2.1 2.1 What Is a Number?;2.2 2.2 Numbering Systems;2.3 2.3 Numeric/String Conversions;2.4 2.4 Internal Numeric Representation;2.5 2.5 Signed and Unsigned Numbers;2.6 2.6 Some Useful Properties of Binary Numbers;2.7 2.7 Sign Extension, Zero Extension, and Contraction;2.8 2.8 Saturation;2.9 2.9 Binary-Coded Decimal (BCD) Representation;2.10 2.10 Fixed-Point Representation;2.11 2.11 Scaled Numeric Formats;2.12 2.12 Rational Representation;2.13 2.13 For More Information;Chapter 3: Binary Arithmetic and Bit Operations;3.1 3.1 Arithmetic Operations on BinarylC.