High Level Assembly

dunric writes "Randall Hyde has developed a programming language called High Level Assembly (HLA). It is a great way for new programmers to develop applications for both Windows and Linux. It works with a variety of assemblers, including Gas, Fasm, Masm and others. The website for Randy's HLA is located at: http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/"

Comments

I'll pass

[niff]

i'm waiting for Microsoft ASM.NET

High Level Assembly (HLA)

[Red Pointy Tail]

...also known as C.

Re:High Level Assembly (HLA)

[Tobias Luetke]

I think this should be modded as Insightful not Funny....

With modern C compiles in place its all but impossible to write an entire project with faster code then the same program in C.
ASM is good to optimize some sections, but even that is questionable nowadays because its probably less expensive to get a faster computer then having a coder with great insight into ASM optimize a section of the code for a week.

Also C code can run on a cluster or super computer if required.

Wow that's gross

[p3d0]

Take a look at the sample programs.

Teaching? Yes. Applications? Er.. why?

[EnglishTim]

I'm sure it's a great teaching tool for learning assembler, and if you need to do a bit of assembler for some reason, cool.

However, using it to teach new programmers how to program applications? Why?

It's

a) Harder to learn than a High Level Language.
b) Takes a lot more work to get anything done when compared to High Level Languages.
c) Is much less use in a working envronment than knowledge of a High Level language is.

Re:Teaching? Yes. Applications? Er.. why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure it's a great teaching tool for learning assembler, and if you need to do a bit of assembler for some reason, cool.

However, using it to teach new programmers how to program applications? Why?

For the same reason it's valuable for programmers to know any language other than the one their company uses. Because teaching someone to write applications isn't the same as teaching them to program.

This language is basically like C but more so: nobody in their right minds would consider using it for a major project, but it's very useful to have some idea of how this stuff really works.

I assure you, the moment I discovered what a 'for' loop compiled to, that was like a lightbulb going on in my head: suddenly programming made sense instead of just being about typing mystical formulae. Since then, sure, I've never touched ASM again, and these days I work almost entirely in functional languages that end up being a million miles away from the hardware, but I don't think I wasted my time when I did learn ASM.

HLA and Art of Assembly

[Dayflowers]

This is hardly news to anyone. If my memory doesn't fail me, that has been around for at least two years. And if you were ever into assembly or even just curious, you were bound to stumble uppon the Art of Assembly (his book, a must read when learning assembly) and his site. Its not like HLA was any secret of even hidden in some obscure webpage...

Randall Hyde's long-term project ...

[Chromodromic]

Actually, HLA ain't nothing new, and if you've been doing any hanging out on comp.lang.asm then you've seen his name popping up on posts about every single day, several times per day, promoting HLA and helping newbies for years now.

I downloaded his book, "Art of Assembly Language" (avail. at No Starch, http://www.nostarch.com/) a couple of years ago before it had been published by No Starch and it's well written, still available for free either HTML , or PDF.

If you're using Windoze then it's definitely worth checking out the excellent RadASM assembly language IDE for Windows, which is itself written in assembly, and also supports HLA. Randall Hyde devotes a chapter somewhere, either in his book or on his site, I can't remember, to configuring and using RadASM.

One of the posts has questioned the value of teaching assembly to newbies, but I think there's a huge value for serious students. It's hard to appreciate garbage collection, for one, until you've had to pick up your own memory trash. But more importantly, most compilers out there output to some intermediary assembly language, and understanding the inner workings of your processor, your compiler and your own programs is one essential difference between being, well, a hack and being really, really good. There are other differences, to be sure, but that's one.

I haven't been a huge fan of HLA myself for various, and admittedly completely arbitrary reasons. But Randall Hyde has put megatons of work into his stuff, doing some extremely impressive things, and he's always ready and willing to be helpful on the newsgroups, so if you have an interest then I would probably go to his site and to comp.lang.asm before I went anywhere else. Anyone stands to learn a ton.