Assembly Language StepbyStep Programming with DOS and Linux 2nd Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Where to Now?

If you've followed me so far, you've probably lost your fear of assembly language, picked up some skills and a good part of the instruction set, and are ready to move on. What's next? Ideally, you need an intermediate book on assembly language. The bad news is, assembly language has had a bad couple of years in the book industry, and most of the useful books I've found are now out of print. Tom Swan's masterful Mastering Turbo Assembler (Howard W. Sams & Co., 1995) is the most significant exception, and is still in print as of early 2000.

Worse, every single one of them focuses on DOS. There has never been an x86 assembly language book focusing on Linux, as best I know. This isn't to say there will never be one, but I don't see one on the immediate horizon.

On the other hand, the Internet has made it much easier to find out-of-print books. There are two sites that you simply must bookmark, and visit regularly, if you want to find books that are no longer available from the publisher or through Amazon.com. Both of these sites are brokers of used books, and what they do is direct you to an independent used bookstore somewhere that contributed listings of books to their master Web database. Here they are:

Alibris has better shipping but a more limited database. You deal directly with Alibris itself rather than the separate used book dealers. It's at www.alibris.com.

Bibliofind is less direct, but its listings are larger and I've found a number of things listed here that Alibris does not list. You send your order to Bibliofind via the Web, and Bibliofind forwards it to the bookstore that listed the book you want. You then conclude the order by sending payment to the bookstore rather than Bibliofind. It's at www.bibliofind.com.

I've used both firms very successfully and I endorse them both without hesitation.

Mastering Turbo Assembler

Tom Swan

HowardW. Sams & Co., 1995

ISBN 0-672-30526-7

Tom's intermediate-level assembly volume is a natural next step if you're working with the Borland tools. I have never seen a better intermediate-level text. It has gone through a couple of editions and is reasonably abundant on the used market. The downside, of course, is that it was published some years back and focuses on DOS real mode segmented model. The TASM assembly code is easily converted to NASM, and the principles Tom teaches apply well to Linux assembly as well, even though Tom does not mention Linux or NASM.

Mastering Turbo Debugger

Tom Swan

Howard W. Sams & Co, 1990

ISBN 0-672-48454-4

For my money, this is the only good book on debugging ever published, and for what I consider an advanced topic, it's remarkably approachable. Again, it focuses on DOS and the Borland tools, but Tom's higher-level strategies for finding and nuking bugs in your code are absolutely essential reading, no matter what assembler you're using, now or at any time in the future. It's been out of print for some time, but you can find it regularly on the used book market.

PC Magazine Programmer's Technical Reference: The Processor and Coprocessor

Robert L. Hummel

Ziff-Davis Press, 1992

ISBN 1-562-76016-5

This is not a tutorial but a reference on Intel's x86 processors through the 486, and it's by far the best one ever written or likely to be written for some time. It has the best discussion of that mysterious protected mode that I've ever seen, and its description of the individual assembly instructions is wonderfully crafted. I'm tempted to have my own copy taken apart and rebound as hardcover-if I don't, it's going to fall to pieces any day now! Alas, out of print but you should grab it if you find it.

Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book

Michael Abrash

Coriolis Group Books, 1997

ISBN 1-576-10174-6

This is a huge book (1,300+ pages) covering code optimization, largely for graphics applications (where it matters the most) but explained in a way that can be applied to almost anything. Some of it involves C programming, but much of it is pure, expert-level assembly-and on the CD-ROM is the original text of Michael's 1989 classic Zen of Assembly Language, which was barely off press when its publisher went under. The book was thus lost in the crush of a big business reorganization, and it never recovered. You'll need to get some practice and some context before all of this book will be completely comprehensible, but it's beautifully written and whether you can read it now, grab it if you see it so it'll be there on your shelf when you're ready for it. (Alas, it went out of print in early 2000, just as I am completing the book you're now reading.)