How to start?

[Raymane]

Hallo,

I'm sorry if this has been asked many times before, just cant find the topic.
I want to start learning assembler. Just have no clue how to start and what tools are needed.
I have windows. Do I need Linux?
I'm guessing I need a compiler and a debugger. Is there anything else I require?

Thanks

P.S Would love start learning today^^

[jj2007]

Hi,
welcome to the Forum :thumbu
Have a look at the link in my signature, it is pretty simple and concise. Once you've installed Masm32, the \masm32\examples folder is a source of inspiration.

[Vortex]

Hi Raymane,

Welcome to the forum. Here are some links for you.

Iczelion's Win32 Assembly Tutorials

Art of Assembly Language Programming and HLA by Randall Hyde

MASM32 Downloads

[Raymane]

Thanks for the welcome and fast answer.

edit: welcomes and answer's ^^


Masm and assembly are the same?

[dedndave]

hi Raymane - welcome to the forum   :U

you can d/l and install the masm32 package...
http://masm32.com/masmdl.htm

before you install it, i suggest you read this page for some important notes...
http://masm32.com/installation.htm
(be sure to install into root folder, close all other programs while installing, and add masm32\bin folder to PATH)

once you have the assembler package, it is good to learn some basics...
http://www.arl.wustl.edu/~lockwood/class/cs306/books/artofasm/toc.html

there is also a lot of good info in the masm32 examples, help, and tutorial folders

there is a lot more stuff, but that will get you started

MASM is the microsoft assembler program (aka ML)
assembly language is supported by a number of other assemblers

[Raymane]

Once again cheers for the help.  Youll hear from me on the forums once I got the basics down.^^

You need to read the forum rules, link removed.

[dedndave]

in days of old, the term "hacker" was fairly well respected
anymore, it isn't looked upon too kindly   :P
you might want to review the forum rules

as for the video, it looks very basic - stuff everyone should already know

[Raymane]

uff this assembly is rly mind buffling. Maybe I should say this is my first programming language that I am learning , has anyone else learned assembly as their first language in programming?

[dedndave]

i did - well, "machine language" to be more correct
but, i doubt you want to follow my path - lol
i learned programming on the 4004 and 8008 CPU's using an EPROM programmer
the CPU's were much simpler than their successors that are in use today

[hutch--]

Raymane,

Just a word of widom here from an old fella, assembler is not a suitable beginners language and you have very little chance of succeeding if you try and start programming with assembler. This style of programming assumes that you already know a lot about the Windows API style of programming, are familiar with high level languages that can write this style of code and that you have at least seen and understood some assembler language code in the past.

To start learning programming you should start on a much simpler compiler so that you can learn basic programming architecture and logic. If in the future you need to use assembler language, you can target it then when you know enough about the basic architecture of the processor and the characteristics of the operating system.