Re: ASM noob - couple of questions



Daniel Bodnar wrote:
Hey,

I'm brand new at assembly, but I'm trying to learn as best I can. I've
got a small segment of code here from VBReFormer and I'd just like to
know what each part of this segment is, and how to interpret it. I can
learn what all the commands are (mov, ecx, eax etc...), but there's a
few things i'd like explained to me.

I think I understand what the first colomn is, but what the heck is the
second one? And how do I decypher it? And what is the data in brackets?

...

Using such printouts is not a good way to
learn asm.

There is a lack of easy to work through
and *complete* tutorials on Windows ASM.
So untangling it all will be a major
time consuming learning adventure in
itself although many have done it.

I have tackled it a few times but have
been driven back by the lack of *simple*
tutorials on DirectX and other basic stuff
like accessing the common webcam.

I think Dr Carter's online book is a good
introductory reference for 32 bit assembler
code.

He uses the free NASM assembler but his
tutorial examples also require the free GNU
gcc compiler (or equivalent) to run.

http://www.drpaulcarter.com/pcasm/

MASM and RosASM require M$ to run.

I prefer the syntax of NASM and FASM.
The *major* problem is a lack of
suitable tutorials for beginners when it
comes to Windows programming.

RosAsm is very self contained but I found
its tutorials irritating to say the least
and its syntax very idiosyncratic and it
lacks the flexibility of the others to
program different OS like Linux.

Not sure about HLA you might give it a go.
If you use its library it will apparently
compile code for M$ or Linux which I think
is neat. Some claim to have used it to
enter the pure assembler world. It is
claimed to make it easy for the majority
of people who have only used a HLL to
lever themselves into assembler.

HLA will also generate MASM, FASM and I
think NASM assembler source code, is that
right Randy, in which case HLA would be
a kind of high level comment and you could
then see how it looks when translated
the way you can with C code if the compiler
generates an assembler source file.

For me the overhead of learning the HLA
environment and its reverse non standard
mnemonics doesn't appeal. It was annoying
enough changing all my code from TASM to
MASM to NASM.

There isn't any good ASM *complete* sources
for programming Windows which requires the
use of API's and DirectX etc to do much.
Thus you need to be able to translate from
any C++ tutorials you might find because
there isn't much in assembler for the novice.


--
JC

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why I stop attacking HLA
    ... ||Betov did in fact provide a decent alternative to Webster and HLA. ... RosAsm _supports_ windows interface guidelines, ... || About tutorials, Betov's own are not the ... as they would have done for any other assembler - no ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: URGENT
    ... Run the Assembler and this file to read its Source. ... The Generic Syntax of the Tutorials. ... Notice that any Label, here, is ending with a Colon. ... This would be incredibly confusing to a beginner. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: Why do we use different files for C ?
    ... The window tutorials were geared for the ... You mean, like HLA? ... In my youth I used BASIC and assembler about equally. ... libraries to extend and give power to the asm programming ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: ASM noob - couple of questions
    ... comes to Windows programming. ... When you talk of "tutorials for beginners", ... The Visual Tuts? ... learn and unlearn later when using another assembler. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: The Case Against RosAsm (#2)
    ... > As opposed, all Master Pdf can offer is a weird HLL Pre-Parser, ... Well it has been explained time and time again that HLA 1.x is just ... There are other great win32asm tutorials like iczelion's so no one has ... anyway because it uses the assembler they're more likely to be using. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)