Re: Book on Assembly


Evenbit wrote:

If the book is intended to be for beginners, then DO NOT put
information in there (nor write macros for them) showing them how to
duplicate 17 different High-Level control constructs. There is *only
one* control construct in assembly -- Branch. Its implementations on
the x86 platform are things like Jump Conditionally, Jump
Unconditionally, and Call Routine. Just give them the a set of tools,
show them the specs of their goal, then let 'em build their control
construct from scratch!

You've never taught beginning assembly language students, have you?
Well, I have. And let me tell you what happens when you let the
students loose to create their own control structures. Instant
spaghetti! It's amazing how bad they wind up writing code.

From real-world experience, let me suggest that teaching the students
how to implement classical control structures in assembly language is
the best approach. Once they see how the classical structures are done,
*THEN* they can explore alternative approaches. But without a decent
foundation to build their knowledge upon, the result is often chaos.

Cheers,
Randy Hyde

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