Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#41

Post by jlarocco » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

znpy wrote: post #27

Maybe too much content? 1000+ pages, many architectures... Probably too much content for a beginner book? Btw, a great book imho is "Assembly Language Step By Step - Programming with Linux - 3rd ed" ( https://musho.tk/l/d2d56a34 ). The great things is that it is an easy read and really starts from the basic and explains how the i386 architecture works, and then explains how to program it using assembly. The sad thing…

I have the first or second edition of "Assembly Language Step By Step", and it's the best intro I know of.

It must be difficult to write a good assembly book. On one hand there's a lot of basics to cover, like memory addressing, segmentation registers, etc. But on the other hand, the main use case for it today is hand optimized functions for when the compiler can't optimize enough, which is inherently an advanced topic.

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#42

Post by neuromantik8086 » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

pro_zac wrote: post #39

neuromantik8086 wrote: post #38

I feel like 6502 assembly is probably better for beginners, but that might be because that's what I'm trying to teach myself...

What resources are you using to learn?

A little bit of Easy 6502 [0] but mostly Richard Haskell's Apple II-6502 Assembly Language Tutor [1][2] along with Virtual][ [3] . Basically I'm trying to use assorted manuals I could find in my childhood home's basement, most of which seem to be out of print (although there are some books floating around on archive.org).

[0] https://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Apple-II-6502-assembly-language-tutor...

[2] https://archive.org/details/Apple_II_6502_Assembly_Language_...

[3] http://www.virtualii.com/

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#43

Post by lucb1e » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

neuromantik8086 wrote: post #38

I feel like 6502 assembly is probably better for beginners, but that might be because that's what I'm trying to teach myself...

This sentiment is one of the reasons why I didn't bother in the past: it's apparently so complex that I have to learn something completely different and useless these days, before I can start learning something useful. I'd much rather just deep dive into x86_64 or ARM or something.

These days I know that older versions are still (partly?) included in x86_64 and that they're often mostly the same, but that was not clear to me when I saw tutorials for ancient architectures of which I didn't see the point.

But then, I've never taken well to the school system where you get taught something stupid first only to see practical applications later. It's why I dropped out of high school and went to do something of which I did see the use (a sysadmin 'study', because I knew I enjoyed working with computers, and that was indeed a good fit for me).

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#44

Post by xigency » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #28

I actually got paid a salary for learning & programming in IBM mainframe assembler (BAL or Basic Assembly Language) in 1970, for an insurance company. The CPU memory was so small (32K, yes 32,768 bytes) that the only way we could squeeze enough functionality was to write in assembler, with overlays (no virtual memory). Debugging consisted of manually toggling hex data and instructions at the control panel. What a bla…

Wow, 32K! I'm working on an Arduino Uno project where I need to squeeze some complicated logic into 2K RAM and 32K FLASH :). I haven't resorted to assembly, yet.

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#45

Post by amorousf00p » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:41 PM UTC

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #28

I actually got paid a salary for learning & programming in IBM mainframe assembler (BAL or Basic Assembly Language) in 1970, for an insurance company. The CPU memory was so small (32K, yes 32,768 bytes) that the only way we could squeeze enough functionality was to write in assembler, with overlays (no virtual memory). Debugging consisted of manually toggling hex data and instructions at the control panel. What a bla…

Whenever I see some shit like 'thanks for sharing' or 'noted' I want to kill someone.

These are cautionary tales: ignore at your leisure.

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#46

Post by amorousf00p » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:41 PM UTC

molteanu wrote: post #34

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #28

I actually got paid a salary for learning & programming in IBM mainframe assembler (BAL or Basic Assembly Language) in 1970, for an insurance company. The CPU memory was so small (32K, yes 32,768 bytes) that the only way we could squeeze enough functionality was to write in assembler, with overlays (no virtual memory). Debugging consisted of manually toggling hex data and instructions at the control panel. What a bla…

Thanks for sharing

Shithead.

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#47

Post by nickpsecurity » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:49 PM UTC

merolish wrote: post #9

Old school, but I've always enjoyed this gentle introduction: https://chortle.ccsu.edu/AssemblyTutorial/index.html

That looks nice. People learning hardware, too, might follow-it up with a study of Plasma MIPS:

https://opencores.org/project/plasma

Then, they'll understand at least one architecture inside and out. Plus be able to customize it to their liking. :)

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#48

Post by ghrifter » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:49 PM UTC

amorousf00p wrote: post #45

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #28

I actually got paid a salary for learning & programming in IBM mainframe assembler (BAL or Basic Assembly Language) in 1970, for an insurance company. The CPU memory was so small (32K, yes 32,768 bytes) that the only way we could squeeze enough functionality was to write in assembler, with overlays (no virtual memory). Debugging consisted of manually toggling hex data and instructions at the control panel. What a bla…

Whenever I see some shit like 'thanks for sharing' or 'noted' I want to kill someone. These are cautionary tales: ignore at your leisure.

Holy shit dude, what next gonna get mad at emoji posting? Too bad I cant emoji spam on HN

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#49

Post by Narishma » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #28

I actually got paid a salary for learning & programming in IBM mainframe assembler (BAL or Basic Assembly Language) in 1970, for an insurance company. The CPU memory was so small (32K, yes 32,768 bytes) that the only way we could squeeze enough functionality was to write in assembler, with overlays (no virtual memory). Debugging consisted of manually toggling hex data and instructions at the control panel. What a bla…

32KB was a ton of memory in the 70s.

Re: Assembly Language for Beginners [pdf]

#50

Post by simonebrunozzi » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

Amazing. One of my fondest memories is when, at age 10-11, I "played" Core War [0] with an older friend of mine (he was 20-21 back then, and a CS student at one of the best CS universities in Italy, Pisa). I loved to learn how to program in a game-like environment. I still remember several things, ~30 years later.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War