[cbisnett]

This is a really great book for anyone interested in compiler development, JIT compilation of higher-level languages, reverse engineering, or anything that involves understanding or generating assembly instructions. This is not a book about hacking from the perspective of breaking into systems or finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in software. The term Hacker in the title is a reference to an early meaning of the word that referred to someone who liked to tinker and understand how things worked.

When I was doing a lot of reverse engineering and vulnerability research work this book gave some really great insight into some of the compiler optimizations that I would come across. Highly recommended for anyone trying to take their skills to the next level.

[FabHK]

You might be thinking about a different book? Hacker's Delight is mostly about bit fiddling (counting bits, finding the longest string of 1-bits, multiplication and division, Gray code, CRC, the famous approximate reciprocal square root) and such.

[EdwardCoffin]

These are just the kinds of things that an optimizing compiler can use, so would be quite useful for reverse engineering the product of an optimizing compiler to figure out what it is doing.

[makach]

yes. the book could definitively be named differently. I skimmed through the free pages and I came to the same conclusion. Probably a great book, but not for me since I am a higher level developer that benefit from the outcome of books like these.