Good day all
Wanted to ask a question, hoping to get sueful answers from members.
I am a 44 yr old Engineer, I program in C, and never ever tried to program in assembly. I have heard it is a bit hard to find the starting "place".
Is it hard to learn MASM for C programmers?
For a total newbie in assembly, where to start?
Hoping ur answers will be informative.
/cheers and respect
note: I did not read much in this forum, so excuse me.
Persona,
Welcome on board, glad to see a few of you young fellas willing to hit the big time. :bg
Have a look at the MASM32 project, with a bit of practice you write it about as fast as C in most instances but you have a lot more freedom in architecture when you need it and it is capable of some very fast code if you learn it properly.
Hi there,
welcome to the board! ASM might seem a bit hard from the start, but after a short period of messing around, you will find that it's just as easy (if not easier) than C/C++.
As hutch says, the MASM32 package is a great starting place. http://masm32.com/
It comes with Iczelion's Windows 32-bit Assembly tutorials, but they are also online at: http://spiff.tripnet.se/~iczelion/tutorials.html
As for other resources, I wrote a small tutorial a few years ago which some liked and some didn't: http://ossa.the-wot.co.uk/tutorial_asm1_tex.htm
For reference, you will want to download a copy of the Intel manuals (or the AMD manuals - they cover the same stuff and, yes, anything you write for one will work on the other*): http://developer.intel.com/design/Pentium4/documentation.htm (scroll down to the "manuals" section).
Of course, if you have any other questions, the great people will be able to help.
Hope some of that helps,
Ossa
* unless you use the MMX\SSE features, but you'll find out about that much later - don't worry about it for now
Hello Persona and welcome aboard. Be sure to see the documentation in the \help folder also. ASMINTRO.HLP contains critical information to code assembly properly.
Ossa, great work with your tutorial! :U
Thanks, Mark.
Actually there are several (very small) mistakes in it that I've been meaning to correct for a while (~1 year) but have never gotten around to. I had the site piggybacked off a friend's website which went down a few months ago, but I've just (see signature) switched to a new host that I pay for and thus have control over. I'm in the process of remaking the website and I will try to add more tutorials in the next few months (as I have now finished my degree).
Thanks for the encouragement,
Ossa
thank you gents. I will keep my fingers crossed as I delve into MASM.
Hoping to find rescuers if I drown.
/respect
Welcome on board! You have a very fun journey ahead of you. I am also a C programmer. I program in C and assembly language for a living. I think transitioning from C to assembly language is easier than other high level languages to assembler. If you use VC++, you can also tell the compiler to generate .asm files that are compatible with MASM. This is a great learning tool since you can see how the compiler converts C code into ASM code. It's the /Fa switch.
One of the things Hutch-- mentioned was making code run fast. I don't recommend looking at code optimization now, but file it away later when you get better at assembly language.
Agner Fog's optimization manual - Agner has had an optimization manual since the Pentium, which came out in the early 1990's
http://www.agner.org/assem/pentopt.pdf
Mark Larson's optimization webpage - This is my optimzation webpage. Most people have optimization manuals for older processors. I include stuff for the newer processors.
I also cover a lot of tips not found on other webpages for optimization.
http://www.mark.masmcode.com/
Both AMD and Intel publish optimization manuals on their websites. If you search the forum you should find lots of links to them.