The art of Assembly language
by Randall Hyde · first published 2003
78% recommend13% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Expansive, free-online introduction to assembly programming, using Randall Hyde's High Level Assembly to ease newcomers in; suited to self-learners and those heading toward reverse engineering or low-level work.
Common criticism: Heavy use of HLA means it feels less like true low-level assembly and CPU architecture
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"The Art of Assembly Language is an indispensable reference for using assembly to write powerful programs and solve real-world problems. Hyde has updated his book to include the latest in 32-bit x86 architecture, as well as the High Level Assembler (HLA), a revolutionary tool that leverages your knowledge of high level programming languages like C/C++ and Pascal/Delphi to streamline your learning process."--Jacket.
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…than start with these (in roughly this order): Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman Introduction to Algorithms - Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein The Art of Assembly Language - Hyde a digital logic book (not sure which is most recommended), and an architecture book (see reply by tftfmacedo) Modern Operating Systems - Tanenbaum Introduction to the Theory of Computation -…
on “Must Read CS Books For Self Self-Taught Programmers” ↗Try Introduction to 80X86 Assembly Language and Computer Architecture http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0763717738 The Art of Assembly Language http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1886411972 Essentials of 80x86 Assembly Language http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076373621X
on “Ask YC: Best book for studying 8086 Assembly Language programming” ↗Randall Hyde's The Art of Assembly Language is available online for free: http://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/www.artofasm.c...
on “Best book for x86 assembly (linux)” ↗If you're interested in assembler language, Randall Hyde's Art of Assembly Language is pretty good (he's the author of HLA) http://homepage.mac.com/randyhyde/webster.cs.ucr.edu/www.art...
on “Wikipedia: High Level Assembly” ↗Yet another free book on assembly and computers is The art of assembly language : http://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/www.artofasm.c... This one is quite expansive in coverage of topics.
on “Programming from the Ground Up [pdf]” ↗…Programmer's Guide to Low-Level PC Hardware and Software (3rd Edition)" By Murray Sargent III and Richard L. Shoemaker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201626462 To learn Assembly Language: Randall Hyde's Art Of Assembly Language http://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/www.artofasm.c... To learn Compilers: Compiler Construction, by Niklaus Wirth http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf Let's Build A Compiler,…
on “Ask HN: How to Self-Study Integrated Circuit Design?” ↗…to assembly language coding early in their course, allowing them to master other prerequisite subjects in assembly before learning how to code low-level forms of these control structures. The book The Art of Assembly Language Programming by Randall Hyde uses HLA for this purpose Web: https://plantation-productions.com/Webster/ Book: "The Art of Assembly Language Programming" https://plantation-productions.com/Webster/www.artofasm.com/…
on “Ask HN: How did you learn x86-64 assembly?” ↗Check out assembly language books by Randall Hyde and Paul Carter, two authors of two different books on the topic. Search for: The Art of Assembly Language by Randall Hyde Carter book: http://pacman128.github.io/pcasm/
on “Snowdrop OS – a homebrew operating system from scratch, in assembly language” ↗…so only the code between matching conditions is included as part of the output. To anyone interested in exploring this a bit more, I'd recommend reading Chapter 8 Section 13 of the DOS version of The Art of Assembly Language Programming [0], which starts on page 43 of the linked PDF. Bonus fun-fact: In the Pokemon Yellow codebase it says `pokemon_type=1` is yellow, while `pokemon_type=0` is pink! This suggests to me that…
on “Nintendo has reportedly suffered a significant legacy console leak” ↗If you're serious about reverse engineering, you might consider learning assembly language and C side-by-side. Learn an assembly language (with the Art of Assembly Language Programming or similar) while working through K&R (or another introduction to C), but compiling everything with gcc -S and reading the assembly output (initially, compile with -O0; optimization will obscure…
on “Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?” ↗…or have a target platform in mind? - For Linux, the lessons here are good: http://asmtutor.com/ - For DOS, http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/Getting_Started (previously posted on HN) - There's also the Art of Assembly Language which uses "High Level Assembly Language": http://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/ If you are looking for a fun/education activity: - Octo / Chip-8 (as previously mentioned) - CoreWar - Box256
on “Shenzhen I/O” ↗The Art of Assembly Language https://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/
on “Ask HN: How to begin learning assembler for university course?” ↗From www.artofasm.com/index.html you can find art of assembly language online books, good place to learn assembly
on “Ask HN: Where should I begin learning low-level computing, asm?” ↗I found this on HN a while back... This is a fun way to get your feet wet: https://microcorruption.com/ I would also grab a copy of Art of Assembly Language.
on “Where should I start learning Assembly?” ↗…* Realm of Racket - Wonderful book. Used this to teach my son Racket at ages 7-8 * Clojure for the Brave and True - Good introduction to Clojure. Also available online for free in HTML form. * The Art of Assembly Language - Read it a number of years ago but I recall it being very good (but unfortunately not as low level as you would think) * Land of Lisp - I own it but haven't read it; seems to be very popular for Common…
on “Humble “Be a Coder” Book Bundle” ↗