The Definitive Assembly Book Guide and List

Question

Following the two great questions about programming books: The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List and The Definitive C Book Guide and List I'd like to propose creating such list for Assembly Language.

This might be an old and not so popular language nowadays, but I believe that good knowledge of it can only help in software development using higher level languages.

Please provide quality books and an approximate skill level. Because each processor have some number of their own specific instructions please no reference manuals - if someone will need one then it is easy to find it.

You should notice that those questions have been closed and reopened several times, before being locked. They are not a good model for questions. — Bo Persson, Oct 01 '15 at 08:48
@BoPersson I am aware of that. But still, there isn't any question like that. — sebap123, Oct 01 '15 at 14:13
I think questions like this are very constructive. Don't see why it should be banned. — Enzo Ferber, Oct 01 '15 at 23:57

David C. Rankin · Answer 1 · 2022-11-14T03:19:07.653

5

For an excellent web reference for Assembly see The Art of Assembly Language Programming.¹ While it is primarily written for 8086, all principles are 100% applicable to current assembly programming. The only differences are register sizes, calling conventions and syscall numbers for x86_64.

The entire book is available online at the above link. It is a thorough treatment of assembly and the underlying hardware it operates on.

footnotes:

Link update to plantation-productions.com page providing access to all 3 Editions (1) windows 32-bit, (2) Linux 32-bit and (3) DOS 16-bit. You can navigate from that page to download the .pdf of your choice. Note: the DOS 16-bit book was the one referred to by the original link, and in my opinion provides the most direct and informative introduction beginning from chapter-2. The 32-bit books, contain the same information but are focused on using the HLA library that hides a bit of the actual assembly.

edited Nov 14 '22 at 03:19

answered Oct 01 '15 at 03:12

David C. Rankin

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After all these years, the link is broken :( – Enlico Nov 13 '22 at 19:07
1

@Enlico - you are in luck, I've updated the link and added a footnote regarding the basic difference between the 3 versions available. – David C. Rankin Nov 14 '22 at 03:19
For 8086 historical interest, there's also a book by the guy who designed the ISA on paper, Stephen Morse. It's on his website for free: https://stevemorse.org/8086/. It does a pretty good job of explaining how you're supposed to use instructions like `loop` or `scasb`, with examples that look very helpful for beginners. – Peter Cordes Nov 14 '22 at 04:55

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '15 at 11:47

Programming From the Ground Up by Jonathan Bartlett (PDF)

This book covers 32bit x86 arch and AT&T syntax

Besides teaching you assembly, it also teaches how computers work. Also, the approach of this book is first teaching the building blocks of computers and then slowly going up, showing how things connect together to create more complex stuff. Very interesting, very enlightening.

The Definitive Assembly Book Guide and List

2 Answers2