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Comment by rmc | Hacker News Reader

For people interested in how computers work, I recommend the book/course "From NAND to Tetris - Building a Modern Computer From First Principles"[1]. It starts of with boolean logic and NAND gates, and it steps you through making a computer that can play tetris.

[1] http://www.nand2tetris.org/

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I haven't read that one, but I'll definitely check it out. I'd also recommend Charles Petzold's book called "Code". One of the best technical books I've ever read!

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

Besides "Code," I highly recommend "The Pattern on the Stone" by Danny Hillis, who also happens to be the designer of Thinking Machines' massively parallel supercomputer, the Connection Machine. It covers more material than Code in a lot less time.

In "Code," Petzold makes sure to cover the material exteremely slowly so that you won't miss any details, so it may get boring for some, but I would also read Code if you have the time and interest.

it's free online and great, but I also enjoy my hard copy(it was like $20, so so so cheap for what it is)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Computing-Systems-Princip...

edit: $30 I guess, still worth it.

Good free ebook for learning how a computer does what it does:

"Programming From The Ground Up"

http://download-mirror.savannah.gnu.org/releases//pgubook/Pr...

There is also "But How Do It Know?" by J Clark Scott. It's good for beginners.

http://www.amazon.com/But-How-Know-Principles-Computers/dp/0...

I remember hearing that the nand2tetris people were going to do an edX course on it in the fall. Does anyone know anything about that?

Thank you so much. I have been looking for something that explains these principles to a non developer but technically interested designer this looks like it will do the trick.

This is also quite good, especially for children: http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

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