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Hacker's Delight
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Henry S. Warren Jr.
Addison-Wesley, Hardcover, Published July 2002, 306 pages, ISBN 0201914654
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"This is the first book that promises to tell the deep, dark secrets of computer arithmetic, and it delivers in spades. It contains every trick I knew plus many, many more. A godsend for library developers, compiler writers, and lovers of elegant hacks, it deserves a spot on your shelf right next to Knuth."

--Josh Bloch

"When I first saw the title, I figured that the book must be either a cookbook for breaking into computers (unlikely) or some sort of compendium of little programming tricks. It's the latter, but it's thorough, almost encyclopedic, in its coverage."

--Guy Steele

These are the timesaving techniques relished by computer hackers--those devoted and persistent code developers who seek elegant and efficient ways to build better software. The truth is that much of the computer programmer's job involves a healthy mix of arithmetic and logic. In Hacker's Delight, veteran programmer Hank Warren shares the tricks he has collected from his considerable experience in the worlds of application and system programming. Most of these techniques are eminently practical, but a few are included just because they are interesting and unexpected. The resulting work is an irresistible collection that will help even the most seasoned programmers better their craft.

Topics covered include:

  • A broad collection of useful programming tricks
  • Small algorithms for common tasks
  • Power-of-2 boundaries and bounds checking
  • Rearranging bits and bytes
  • Integer division and division by constants
  • Some elementary functions on integers
  • Gray code
  • Hilbert's space-filling curve
  • And even formulas for prime numbers!

This book is for anyone who wants to create efficient code. Hacker's Delight will help you learn to program at a higher level--well beyond what is generally taught in schools and training courses--and will advance you substantially further than is possible through ordinary self-study alone.


Table of Contents



Preface.


1. Introduction.

Notation.

Instruction Set and Execution Time Model.



2. Basis.

Manipulating Rightmost Bits.

Addition Combined with Logical Operations.

Inequalities among Logical and Arithmetic Expressions.

Absolute Value Function.

Sign Extension.

Shift Right Signed from Unsigned.

Sign Function.

Three-Valued Compare.

Transfer of Sign.

Decoding a “Zero Means 2**n” Field.

Comparison Predicates.

Overflow Detection.

Condition Code Result of Add, Subtract, and Multiply.

Rotate Shifts.

Double-Length Add/Subtract.

Double-Length Shifts.

Multibyte Add, Subtract, Absolute Value.

Doz, Max, Min.

Exchanging Registers.

Alternating among Two or More Values.



3. Power-of-2 Boundaries.

Rounding Up/Down to a Multiple of a Known Power of 2.

Rounding Up/Down to the Next Power of 2.

Detecting a Power-of-2 Boundary Crossing.



4. Arithmetic Bounds.

Checking Bounds of Integers.

Propagating Bounds through Adds and Subtracts.

Propagating Bounds through Logical Operations.

Signed Bounds.



5. Counting Bits.

Counting 1-bits.

Parity.

Counting Leading 0's.

Counting Trailing 0's.



6. Searching Words.

Find First 0-Byte.

Find First String of 1-Bits of a Given Length.



7. Rearranging Bits and Bytes.

Reversing Bits and Bytes.

Shuffling Bits.

Transposing a Bit Matrix.

Compress, or Generalized Extract.

General Permutations, Sheep and Goats Operation.

Rearrangements and Index Transformations.



8. Multiplication.

Multiword Multiplication.

High-Order Half of 64-Bit Product.

High-Order Product Signed from/to Unsigned.

Multiplication by Constants.



9. Integer Division.

Preliminaries.

Multiword Division.

Unsigned Short Division from Signed Division.

Unsigned Long Division.



10. Integer Division by Constants.

Signed Division by a Known Power of 2.

Signed Remainder from Division by a Known Power of 2.

Signed Division and Remainder by Non-powers of 2.

Signed Division by Divisors >= 2.

Signed Division by Divisors #= -2.

Incorporation into a Compiler.

Miscellaneous Topics.

Unsigned Division.

Unsigned Division by Divisors >= 1.

Incorporation into a Compiler (Unsigned).

Miscellaneous Topics (Unsigned).

Applicability to Modulus and Floor Division.

Similar Methods.

Sample Magic Numbers.

Exact Division by Constants.

Test for Zero Remainder after Division by a Constant.



11. Some Elementary Functions.

Integer Square Root.

Integer Cube Root.

Integer Exponentiation.

Integer Logarithm.



12. Unusual Bases for Number Systems.

Base -2.

Base -1 + i.

Other Bases.

What is the Most Efficient Base?



13. Gray Code.

Gray Code.

Incrementing a Gray Coded Integer.

Negabinary Gray Code.

Brief History and Applications.



14. Hilbert's Curve.

A Recursive Algorithm for Generating the Hilbert Curve.

Coordinates from Distance along the Hilbert Curve.

Distance from Coordinates on the Hilbert Curve.

Incrementing the Coordinates on the Hilbert Curve.

Non-recursive Generating Algorithms.

Other Space-Filling Curves.

Applications.



15. Floating-Point.

IEEE Format.

Comparing Floating-Point Numbers Using Integer Operations.

The Distribution of Leading Digits.

Table of Miscellaneous Values.



16. Formulas for Primes.

Introduction.

Willans's Formulas.

Wormell's Formula.

Formulas for Other Difficult Functions.



Appendix A. Arithmetic Tables for a 4-Bit Machine.


Appendix B. Newton's Method.


Bibliography.


Index.


Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews: 1     Average Customer Rating:

Dec 19, 2003     
Great addition to any coder's toolkit
This book has a title that might put you off, but here "hack" has its original sense: "a really hot bit of coding." Likewise, the material is a bit of a hodge-podge, but it's all within the realm of numerical computing, and it's all stuff that you might easily find the need for at odd moments in any kind of project. Well-written, with a comfortable balance of mid-level theoretic background and good, language-independent implementations. Not a cookbook, but the kind of book you'd turn to when you need to solve some specific problem that's a little off the charts, and which the textbooks and general-purpose books don't cover (happens all too often). I'd have to say the thing it reminds me of the most is Knuth, but covering an odd mix of useful topics in a more immediately accessible treatment. I don't often run across books I care to write a review about, and when I do, it's usually to prevent someone else from making the mistake of buying it; this one, though, was a pleasure. For me, there was the added bonus of discovering that it had a pretty spot-on solution to a problem I'd just been working on.



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