How Software Works: The Magic Behind Encryption, CGI, Search Engines, and Other Everyday Technologies

It's important to understand that this book does not dive deep into the many intricacies of each subject. Though it does scratch the surface, thus leaving us the readers with the option of either researching more about the subject elsewhere or contempt with understanding the topic abstractly. I enjoy this property of the book. Very well written, with sufficient background information on each subject so that the reader feel's like a pro.

Good information, but the title is a bit over promising. Much more reading on computer architecture and organization is needed to understand how software 'works'.This book goes into broader topics like cgi, animation.I don't understand the meaning of the cover.

Loved reading this book!! It very clearly explained how extremely popular concepts (secure web browsing, computer graphics, search engines) work in lucid detail. Couldn't put it down and I'm now better off for it

Well written and it was easy to stay interested while going from subject to subject.

Awesome condition.

not a great book on the subject. wish i hadnot bought it

Can you explain to a non-technical reader how software works? It depends on what you mean by “software” and “explain.”With respect to software, this particular book focuses on a few areas that are hot today, and not computing in general. Take a look at the following list. What would it be like to not have the following technologies?Graphic display, both for pictures and videoSecurity — whether in the form of passwords, encryption, including public key cryptographyData compression techniques to reduce the amount of data sent, whether for text, pictures, or videoWeb SearchMaps that help us find the most efficient driving routeConcurrency — allowing multiple parties to use the same application at the same timeThe web and the internet generally would be a dramatically different place, and much smaller, as it was in 1990 slightly after Tim Berners-Lee created HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).The topics here are important and affect our daily lives. The author of “How Software Works” makes a significant effort to explain programming in a way that teenagers and adults could understand, using pictures, tables, flowcharts, simplified numerical examples, and more.Now, reading this book will give you a top-level view of how these technologies work, but not much more. It will help you understand some of the tradeoffs that go on in computing. How do you balance:Richness of data delivered versus resource use and speed of display.Security versus ease of useReduction of size of data versus loss of fidelity in an image or videoAnd more, there are a lot of tradeoffs in programming.The ideal audience for this book is bright adults who aren’t programmers, but want some appreciation of the hidden complexity behind much of what goes on on the internet. The second ideal audience would be teenagers and young adults who might want a career in computer science, who might benefit from exposure to these varied areas of software. Who knows? One area might catch their fancy, and then they can study it for real, and put it into practice. (I’m giving this book to my second daughter who is interested in programming.)QuibblesOn page 39, the author suggests that there is no way to do square roots, that it is just a guesswork procedure. There are algorithms to do square roots — whether those are used in computing, I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be hard to implement. I was doing it when I was 10. (I’m not much of a programmer presently, but I am good at math.)Summary / Who Would Benefit from this BookI liked this book. Give it to friends who want to learn about how much of the web is designed. Give it to interested teenagers to expand their horizons in computing.

Like most people, I don’t give much thought about what goes “under the hood” when I’m doing a web search, shopping online, or editing my pictures with my computer. Our devices are an integral part of our lives but very few of us will stop a few moments to marvel at how on earth we can play games on our tablets or how they help us find the fastest route to a location. Well, I got curious one day and picked up V. Anton Spraul’s “How Software Works” to see if it would help me understand how a computer accomplishes some of the tasks we take for granted.Mr. Spraul’s book is divided into 9 chapters. The first three chapters give readers a look as to how encryption and passwords work to ensure Web security. The next two chapters open the doors to the wonders of movie CGI and video game graphics. Chapter 6 explains how then videos and images are compressed so that they may fit in a Blu-ray disc or DVD. Chapter 7 helps us understand what happens when we do a search and how search engines work. Chapter 8 deals with concurrency or how a computer can run two or three programs at the same time. The last chapter is about map routes.I found “How Software Works” to be interesting and I did gain some understanding as to how software operates. I’m no techie and although the publishers claim that the book is written in plain English, and that no technical background is required, I still found the chapters about movie CGI and video game graphics difficult to grasp. For some reason, the black and white diagrams didn’t work for me and I thought that maybe if they were in color, they would get their point across better. Gray, black and white graphics are not very effective when you’re talking about lighting, reflection, shadows and coloring. On the other hand, I found the other chapters fascinating, especially the ones about concurrency, web searching, encryption and passwords. Now I know how https work, why we need read-only, and the meaning of some cool terminology like semaphore, hashing, race conditions, and handshaking. In spite of the fact that it requires some technical understanding to read it, “How Software Works” makes for a good reference book for those looking for answers as to how computers do their magic.

A bit on the dull side. I found the chapter on encryption interesting but the rest dull and boring - not worth £11

Livraison plus rapide qu'attendu.Emballage soigné.Ce livre ( en anglais bien sûr, comme attendu ) m'avait été recommandé, il est très intéressant et très didactique. Se lit sans trop de difficultésA recommander aux amateurs ( débutants, et même -très- confirmés ) d'informatique, souhaitant savoir ce qu'il y a derrière les logiciels courants.Les explications sur ( entre autres ) les diverses méthodes de cryptage sont très bien faites et passionnantes.Une foule d'autres sujets de base est abordée. On peut butiner ce livre par chapitres indépendants, selon ses besoins et curiosités.Je recommande vraiment.