linux

Many people aspiring to learn assembly have been discourage by the high learning barrier of understanding the arcane aspects of language and computer architecture. I was one of them. This book helped me broke that barrier.

As the author said that he set out to write a book that "taught people how to program in assembly language as ther first experience in programming"; the book lives up to that promise.

Unlike many other books that rushes through basic concepts and dives into assembly instruction, the author has great explanations of every concepts in assembly. I especially liked the metaphors approach to describe many difficult concepts.

The NASM assembler and NASM-IDE tools included in the book is another bonus to the book. The author also has a web site to for book errata, links to other great web pages about assembly.

The author dedicated the last 100 pages of the book to Linux programming, and done a decent job at it. I agree with him that the reason he did not choose Windows was that the results from learning and programming windows applications in Assembly is not worth the time. However, I wondered if it would be better that if the author spend that last 100 pages on building something useful with assembly, like a hex editor, so that we get a better feel for the language. He could write a book on programming in assembly for Linux.

But, overall, the book is so well-written, living up to the title: Step by Step - that I didn't even feel any difficulty learning the concepts, as I did in other books.

I read this book from cover to cover. This is simply, hands-down, the BEST book you could read if you have never done any assembly programming and want to get started. This book takes an approach that is unconventional to most other books you would buy, and yet it is the best approach. Had I not read this book first, I may never have understood assembly language level programming.

While this book is not real deep, it's a great start. After reading this book, you will feel confident in your knowledge of assembly language programming to read any other texts on more advanced assembly language programming.

Notably, this book does not cover protected mode, however, I don't believe that is a concept beginners should focus on. BUY THIS BOOK if you don't buy any other if you want to truly understand assembly language programming.

This book filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge about computers in general as well as introducing me to the world of assembly language. I didn't know how much I didn't know until I read this text.

The book is enjoyable and easy to read. If I had it to do over again, this is probably the first computer programming book I would read. The author really explains the concepts in simple terms that are easy for even a novice to understand. I found parts of the book moving along a bit slowly for my taste, but I was certainly able to reatin all the knowlege.

The first 150-200 pages is mostly background. I found some useful morsels of information through these sections, although I was able to read through them quite quickly. Then there's about 200 pages on assembling for DOS and another 120 pages on assembling for LINUX. All parts of the book are relevant to each other.

If you are new to assembly, or want to fill in some gaps in you knowlege this is a great book to start with. If you have programmed in assembly before, you will probably be disappointed with this book.