Designing Great Code Randall Hyde

Understanding the Machine, the first volume in the landmark Write Great Code series by Randall Hyde, explains the underlying mechanics of how a computer works.

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.