The Secret Life of ProgramsJon Steinhart
The Secret Life of Programs
by Jon Steinhart · first published 2019
8mentions
5recommended by
5HN commenters
2019–2024first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Builds computing from the ground up, starting with boolean logic and analog signals and moving through gates, CPUs, and memory to a web browser; suited to readers wanting a tour of how software runs on hardware.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I’ve really enjoyed The Secret Life of Programs by Jonathan E. Steinhart. From analog signals, to gates, to cpus and memory, and so on all the way up. Very cool concept, well executed.
on “Open Circuits – No Starch Press [pdf]” ↗The best explanation I've seen is in the book "The Secret Life of Programs" by Jonathan E. Steinhart. I'll quote that paragraph verbatim: --- Computer programming is a two-step process: 1. Understand the universe. 2. Explain it to a three-year-old. What does this mean?…
on “Programming Isn’t Coding” ↗You may like "The Secret Life of Programs" by Jonathan Steinhart. It starts at boolean logic and works up to a web browser and then some other stuff. Edit: It's a high level covering of each topic of course, it does have to fit in a book. It's…
on “Become Shell Literate” ↗Great article! I've posted it in other comments before, but it's worth repeating: The best explanation I've seen is in the book "The Secret Life of Programs" by Jonathan E. Steinhart. I'll quote that paragraph verbatim: --- Computer programming is a two-step process: 1. Understand the universe. 2. Explain it to a three-year-old. What does this mean?…
on “Programming Is Mostly Thinking (2014)” ↗Here’s a slightly different take: The Secret Life of Programs (https://nostarch.com/foundationsofcomp ). It starts with a practical set of things and then ends with some survey overviews for people who want to know more. A complement, not really an alternative,…
on “Computer Science from the Bottom Up (2016)” ↗There are a few amazing books out there: Code by Charles Petzold, The Elements of Computing (Nand2Tetris course book), No Starch Press's Secret Life of Programs, Learning Computer Architecture with Raspberry Pi
on “Z80, the 8-bit Number Cruncher (2011)” ↗…say Pico-8, tic80, UXN, Minetest/Minecraft, Godot, or Unity may all be decent options to start with, depending on how in depth you want to go. Oh, also I really really really really like the book The Secret life of Programs. In my opinion, it really is worth learning how the layer below where you're working works.
on “Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?” ↗I highly recommend "The Secret Life of Programs" for this purpose. It starts at the hardware level and works up - it definitely massively improved my understanding of everything that goes on in a machine.
on “Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?” ↗