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The Art of 64-bit Assembly

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Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#91

Post by dinkumthinkum »

skippyfish wrote: post #66

I know that we're discouraged from meta-comments, but what is going on in this thread? It's a nearly 800-page book about the art of programming. A huge amount of work on a topic that should be dear to our hearts. News for hackers, right? But somehow, the discussion has three themes. It's 50+ comments of "I don't like the first sentence of the marketing copy", "I don't like the tool the author is using", and "what wou…

Volume 1 is actually a really good book. Randall Hyde is a great author on this subject. HN has changed a lot from what it once was. It's just filled with a lot of this kind of snark and nonsense. What else would you expect when the most common take on AI on HN is this insane idea that "LLMs are just like a compiler was?" But, its not everyone. If you're interested in this topic then I think it will be worth working through.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#92

Post by dinkumthinkum »

rajeevk wrote: post #17

>> You can ask an AI to explain how vtables work in x86. It will give you something that sounds right. What it won’t give you is what Windows actually expects the vtable to look like, why method dispatch behaves the way it does at the instruction level, or what breaks when you deviate from convention. This volume of The Art of 64-Bit Assembly closes the gap between a plausible explanation and genuine understanding. O…

Are you a programmer because this doesn't logically follow. An LLM can be trained on a book but that doesn't mean it will perfectly implement the principles "learned" in in that book for all future prompts and problems. Also, I think what is more fundamentally being said here is more about you as the potential reader, yes you can prompt the AI for something and it will give you a response but it will likely not give you a complete enough of a response that would confer upon you an equivalent level of understanding as an expert for your use-case.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#94

Post by userbinator »

csense wrote: post #15

I'm sorry, MASM? All the cool kids use NASM or YASM.

At least it's not HLA or GAS.

Who else remembers the flamewars of the 90s between all the different factions of Asm programmers? MASM vs TASM vs RosAsm vs HLA (basically no one took GAS seriously at all)... it was in some ways quite similar to the Chrysler vs Ford vs GM wars.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#95

Post by dripdry45 »

skippyfish wrote: post #66

I know that we're discouraged from meta-comments, but what is going on in this thread? It's a nearly 800-page book about the art of programming. A huge amount of work on a topic that should be dear to our hearts. News for hackers, right? But somehow, the discussion has three themes. It's 50+ comments of "I don't like the first sentence of the marketing copy", "I don't like the tool the author is using", and "what wou…

I’ve been concerned seeing this in too many threads.

A Marketing and propaganda rule is that the very first thing people read/see sets the tone for the entire discussion. If you get everyone off track right from the jump it degrades the entire discussion and, ultimately, the usefulness of hacker news.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#96

Post by rramadass »

agarren wrote: post #63
Someone wrote: post #19

Weird title for a book on assembly - for x64 - on Windows - using MASM There are other 64-bit OSes, CPUs and assemblers for them, and people do use them.

What a weird, low-effort comment. Randell’s got another (large) book on ARM assembly. He’s also got a handful of other great books on software engineering in general - he’s more than aware that “there are other 64-bit OSes, CPUs and assemblers for them, and people do use them.” This particular title, “the art of assembly” has been around for a while. This x64 version is the latest iteration - it’s a great book compar…

You are quite right.

Anybody who is even cursorily interested in Assembly Programming knows of Randall Hyde and his works since he has been at it since the 16-bit days. One of the few authors with truly great depth.

Makes me think that most people commenting here know nothing about assembly and are simply posting empty comments for the heck of it. This has been a trend on HN lately of similar meaningless/useless comments on any topic.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#97

Post by rramadass »

anta40 wrote: post #81
agarren wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a weird, low-effort comment. Randell’s got another (large) book on ARM assembly. He’s also got a handful of other great books on software engineering in general - he’s more than aware that “there are other 64-bit OSes, CPUs and assemblers for them, and people do use them.” This particular title, “the art of assembly” has been around for a while. This x64 version is the latest iteration - it’s a great book compar…

You mean this: https://www.amazon.com/Art-ARM-Assembly-Randall-Hyde/dp/1718... ? Mmm nice. Will give it a try since ARM-based Mac is my main working environment nowadays.

You might also want to checkout the Assembly books by Larry Pyeatt (ARM only) and Daniel Kusswurm (x86 + ARM).

Another excellent classic which you should checkout if you are interested in all things ARM is ARM System Developer's Guide: Designing and Optimizing System Software by Sloss, Symes and Wright. It is old and so does not cover newer ARM architectures but will give you a solid foundation for system programming.

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#98

Post by yesitcan »

mathisfun123 wrote: post #73
skippyfish wrote: post #66

I know that we're discouraged from meta-comments, but what is going on in this thread? It's a nearly 800-page book about the art of programming. A huge amount of work on a topic that should be dear to our hearts. News for hackers, right? But somehow, the discussion has three themes. It's 50+ comments of "I don't like the first sentence of the marketing copy", "I don't like the tool the author is using", and "what wou…

this is what almost every hn post is: lowbrow reflexive/reactionary responses. it's been like this for years. try to call it out and you'll be censured by dang or one of the other police officers for being "uncharitable" or something like that

[flagged]

Re: The Art of 64-bit Assembly

#100

Post by ternaryoperator »

mathisfun123 wrote: post #73
skippyfish wrote: post #66

I know that we're discouraged from meta-comments, but what is going on in this thread? It's a nearly 800-page book about the art of programming. A huge amount of work on a topic that should be dear to our hearts. News for hackers, right? But somehow, the discussion has three themes. It's 50+ comments of "I don't like the first sentence of the marketing copy", "I don't like the tool the author is using", and "what wou…

this is what almost every hn post is: lowbrow reflexive/reactionary responses. it's been like this for years. try to call it out and you'll be censured by dang or one of the other police officers for being "uncharitable" or something like that

Really? I have quite the opposite impression. HN is one of the few places I can come to where intelligent conversations can be found. Sure, sometimes discussions run off the rails into the weeds, but snark is rare, and when conversations stay on track, they often add significantly to the post.
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