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Learning x86 for Non-x86 Assembler Programmers?
An anonymous reader asks: "I've done assembler for the 6809, 68000, 8085, MIPS and ARM architectures over the years. But - I've never learned assembler for the most common architecture out there. I would like to change that. I can roughly follow my way around x86 disassemblies, but I'm not as good at optimizing/fine tuning bits of assembler because I am not intimately familiar with all of the addressing modes etc. I would like a book that is targetted at people like me. I would like to be able to fine tune, say a blitter in x86 assembler. One thing I do not in a book is something that is trying to teach me assembler programming in general. Most assembler books seem to fall in the latter category. Are there books out there that might prove useful to me?"
A website that could come in handy for learning about x86 assembly language is DDJ Microprocessor Center. In specific, the On-line Intel Documentation links are almost invaluable when learning to code for the x86 architecture. Being Intel reference manuals, they tend to cut to the case relativly quickly.
Shh! It's a secret, but Intel offers 4 very nice books at a great price: free.
They aren't tutorials, so there isn't the same hand-holding that you would get in a book from Barnes & Noble, but they explain things well enough that a seasoned assembly programmer should be able to follow with no problem at all. I think they are exactly what you want.
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned this book already, because it's exactly what you're looking for. The only problem is that it's dated - it considers the 80386 to be a new processor. There was a time when no self-respecting assembly programmer would be caught dead without it. Alas, I sold mine a couple years ago, since I already learned everything I could from it.
The only problem is that it (like all of Abrash's books) has been out of print for a long time, and so it will be very hard to find.
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If you're in Linuxland, you might find linuxassembly.org helpful. I've done some assembly before (only a semester's worth, though), and the site was rather useful to me. If you've never done x86, though, there might not be enough there for you . . .
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