Art of Assembly Language, 2nd Edition

by Randall Hyde

March 2010, 760 pp.

ISBN-13:

9781593272074

Download Chapter 7: Low-Level Control Structures

Assembly is a low-level programming language that's one step above a computer's native machine language. Although assembly language is commonly used for writing device drivers, emulators, and video games, many programmers find its somewhat unfriendly syntax intimidating to learn and use.

Since 1996, Randall Hyde's The Art of Assembly Language has provided a comprehensive, plain-English, and patient introduction to 32-bit x86 assembly for non-assembly programmers. Hyde's primary teaching tool, High Level Assembler (or HLA), incorporates many of the features found in high-level languages (like C, C++, and Java) to help you quickly grasp basic assembly concepts. HLA lets you write true low-level code while enjoying the benefits of high-level language programming.

As you read The Art of Assembly Language, you'll learn the low-level theory fundamental to computer science and turn that understanding into real, functional code.

You'll learn how to:

Edit, compile, and run HLA programs
Declare and use constants, scalar variables, pointers, arrays, structures, unions, and namespaces
Translate arithmetic expressions (integer and floating point)
Convert high-level control structures

This much anticipated second edition of The Art of Assembly Language has been updated to reflect recent changes to HLA and to support Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. Whether you're new to programming or you have experience with high-level languages, The Art of Assembly Language, 2nd Edition is your essential guide to learning this complex, low-level language.

Author Bio

Randall Hyde is the author of Write Great Code Volumes 1 and 2 (No Starch Press) and the co-author of MASM 6.0 Bible (The Waite Group). He has written for Dr. Dobb's Journal, Byte, and various professional journals. Hyde taught assembly language at the University of California, Riverside for over a decade.

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Hello, World of Assembly Language
Chapter 2: Data Representation
Chapter 3: Memory Access and Organization
Chapter 4: Constants, Variables, and Data Types
Chapter 5: Procedures and Units
Chapter 6: Arithmetic
Chapter 7: Low-Level Control Structures
Chapter 8: Advanced Arithmetic
Chapter 9: Macros and the HLA Compile-Time Language
Chapter 10: Bit Manipulation
Chapter 11: The String Instructions
Chapter 12: Classes and Objects

AA ASCII Character Set

View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF).
View the Index (PDF).

Reviews

"The previous edition of Hyde's book has been my go-to book for assembly language for years, and there's little doubt this edition will be similarly long-lived."
—SD Times: Software Development News (Read More)

"Considering the fact that many people seem to have difficulties in learning assembler, this book is a very good read and effectively introduces the reader to this fascinating topic."
—The Ethical Hacker Network (Read More)

"The Art of Assembly Language is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any programmer who has yet to experience and appreciate deeper understanding of HLA gained as a result of reading the book."
—Dr. Dobb's (Read More)

"The beauty of this book and HLA is that the HLA compiler insulates the beginner from the drudgery and trickery of getting started from zero knowledge."
—A.P. Lawrence (Read More)

"And yes, people still do write in Assembly Language. And now, if you want to try this out for yourself, there is a great new book available to help you out. This is the second edition of Randall Hyde's The Art of Assembly Language."
—Scienceblogs.com (Read More)

"I was reading The Art of Asssembly Language, 2nd Edition by Randall Hyde the other day and really enjoyed his approach to teaching the assembly language programming."
—Hex Blog (Read More)

"As I remarked in respect of the first edition, if you want to use assembly language, or add it to your list of programming skills, this is the book to have."
—Linux Users of Victoria (Read More)

"If you are a beginner and want to find your way into lower level programming and gain an understanding of how a machine's hardware works then this is a good way to get into things."
—I Programmer (Read More)

"By the end of the book, readers will be pretty comfortable writing in programs using HLA and will have a new understanding of how computers operate."
—YYZtech.ca (Read More)

"The Art of Assembly Language is a good book for teaching you the basics of Assembly through the use of HLA as Assembly 'training wheels.'"
—The Durham University Computing Society (Read More)

Extra Stuff