Just a misc. question

[TheRyan]

I'm new to the forums and look forwards to learning more about ASM as it seems like a good thing to know.  Just wondering, is Assembly a programming language which is regulated by some sort of standards, so that in learning to program in MASM32 I won't limit myself to this single programming environment?  I know some languages, such as BASIC, have so many spinoffs you can't find which one is "the real deal" and end up with a poorly designed BASIC variant with terrible syntax and lots of dead ends.  Not saying MASM32 is as such, it looks like a great program, but I want to learn something I could expand upon later. 

Ryan

[hutch--]

Ryan,

Welcome on board. There is a certain amount of notation in MASM that is specific to MASM but that is the case with any other assembler. What remains the same is the OS architecture and the Intel instructions that you use to write assembler code so to this extent you will not waste what you learn with MASM as it applies to the OS and the processor hardware.

[Tedd]

The original (x86) instruction set was defined by Intel, and all of the (x86) assemblers follow this. There is a little difference between each and they each have their nuances, but the general instruction set remains the same, so by learning one you will not need much of a leap to learn another.

[TheRyan]

Thanks hutch-- and Tedd!  Just what I was hoping for.

[akalenuk]

I'm new to the forums and look forwards to learning more about ASM as it seems like a good thing to know.  Just wondering, is Assembly a programming language which is regulated by some sort of standards, so that in learning to program in MASM32 I won't limit myself to this single programming environment?

Learning assembly will rise your general programming skills greatly. It's importrant to distinguish knowlege and skills. Actual computer knowlegde is changing for nearly 80% every decade, the other 20% is a core, which also includes low level basis well represented by assembly. And the skills - is what you gain for life. So you would not limit yourself to a single enviroment, even if you will limit your specific code to it.