What is code?

[yadayada]

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/#b06g24t20w15

[Jurgis]

tl;dr

 

8)

[tengen]

I stopped reading at "A computer is a clock with benefits".

[Travis Wiedower]

I taught myself to code years ago so I enjoyed the read. It is really long, but probably a solid overview for people who know very little, or nothing, about programming.

[Jurgis]

Agreed with Travis. (Though I did not finish)

[rkbabang]

I haven't read it yet, but I did click on the link to start it, the moving graphics on the sides of the page are annoying and distracting.  If I do go back to read it I think I'll cut and paste the text into a text editor. 

 

I first taught myself to code on my Commodore 64 when I was about 10 or 11. I'm a hardware guy, but I do a fair amount of coding at work. Mostly embedded C and assembly, and a fair amount of Python and Perl scripting as well.

 

[jschembs]

Do any of you have a book you'd recommend that synthesizes the history of coding languages? At this point in my life, I'm more interested in learning the history of the languages than trying to code myself.

[spartansaver]

I've been taking a coursera course Computer Science 101 that gives a nice overview of coding and computers. It's only six classes long, but I've enjoyed and learned a fair amount from the first two.

[Travis Wiedower]

Do any of you have a book you'd recommend that synthesizes the history of coding languages? At this point in my life, I'm more interested in learning the history of the languages than trying to code myself.

 

It sounds like the book CODE may be what you're looking for.

[yadayada]

This book is a good intro in computer science, on how the logic gates work. But very basic obviously, no advanced stuff

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435859521&sr=8-1&keywords=code+the+hidden+language

[netnet]

Do any of you have a book you'd recommend that synthesizes the history of coding languages? At this point in my life, I'm more interested in learning the history of the languages than trying to code myself.

Do you want a general CS history? Seminal ideas from CS or do you really want a history of programming languages.

 

For a history of CS:

Ada's Algorithm

 

Seminal ideas from CS:

The Ingenious Ideas that drive today's Computers

 

CS from a societal perspective

Program or be Progammed and

Blown to Bits

 

Code the hidden language that Yadayada recommended is a good book.

 

If you want to go beyond this and get really profound sense of what is going on under the hood in a computer look at Nand to Tetris.  There is a website (separate and complete) here http://nand2tetris.org/OR a MOOC course.  This is really great, you build a virtual computer from first principles, i.e. from the logic gate to running a Tetris game: https://class.coursera.org/nand2tetris1-001