[Jeet.in]

Well I need to learn assembly this season, very basic though. Choice of textbook is Peter Abel's IBM PC Assembly Language and Programming. I am having my summer holidays and thought I would start the topic a little bit. Well as soon as I started I got stuck. He uses a program called DEBUG which is an 16Bit application, won run on my 64Bit PC. And a lot more. I am totally puzzled. I have Visual Studio Professional and Code::Blocks Installed on my PC for my simple C development purpose. What are the other tools I need for Assembly development that would run on my machine and still be able to assemble the book's codes? Any other necessary/relevant suggestions on assembly development? Is that book the right place to begin? Any prerequisites for the development course hat DIC experts will recommend?
Thanks.

[no2pencil]

You could run a 16bit virtual machine such as Dosbox.

[Jeet.in]

no2pencil, on 18 June 2012 - 02:01 AM, said:

You could run a 16bit virtual machine such as Dosbox.

Thank you very much for you suggestion no2pencil but I was looking for something a bit modern. For example WinAsm Studio or Easy Code - Visual assembler. Are they capable/suitable for learning or doing what you guys feel I need to do for the course. Actually I have got really used to syntax highlighting, easy file management etc. Or is it necessary to learn Assembly using DOS based apps. Please recommend me the right path.
Thanks Again.

This post has been edited by Jeet.in: 18 June 2012 - 02:19 AM

[no2pencil]

I use the Crimson Editor which offers syntax highlighting, NASM or MASM, though I believe you still need a linker for MASM.

I don't think you'll have much luck running a 16bit application on a 64bit platform, regardless of what language you write it in.

[Jeet.in]

Thanks Again Will Give It a Try. Any other tips? On development maybe?

[GunnerInc]

www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/265667-learning-asm/
Post #8 has good info

RadAsm is a great ide. On cell phone atm, so you have to wait for a better post.

[Jeet.in]

GunnerInc, on 18 June 2012 - 04:38 AM, said:

www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/265667-learning-asm/
Post #8 has good info

RadAsm is a great ide. On cell phone atm, so you have to wait for a better post.

For answers from experts like you and others I don't mind waiting, whatever be the wait time. Thank you so much for the help. I will try out RadAsm as well.

EDIT: Unable to download RadAsm. Site blocked by my ISP as it has "Low Reputaion". But the good news is I have successfully configured WinAsm Studio and EasY Code Masm

This post has been edited by Jeet.in: 18 June 2012 - 04:58 AM

[GunnerInc]

Quote

Well I need to learn assembly this season, very basic though

Glad you are going to learn Assembly!!! Learning Assembly is not basic.

Your are basically going to have to unlearn whatever you learned in a HLL, down here things are a bit different. If you used the Win32 API in C then, it is simple.

Get rid of that book, 16bit is basically dead and so is DOS. Unless you plan on getting a job working with 16bit code, it sucks. Graphics is limited, memory is limited, you are limited in many things you can do.

IDE's -

WinASM is MASM only (Can use FASM with a plugin) or you can write your own plugin to support another language. I have written plugins for RadASM and WinASM and it is simple. A plus is that is open source now so you can modify it for your needs.

Easy Code - If you are going to use this, just use VB. Last time I looked at it, it writes a lot of the code for you, hides some code from you, and has its own runtime I think.

RadASM - I have been using this for years. Has a great resource editor, support for many languages, much better than WinASM IMO. You can always get the current version and source from KeitlO's SVN repository

Probably one of the best places on the net to learn Assembly is from Randy Hyde

Another good way to learn is the way many of us did, download source and play around with it to see what happens.

And of course the links in the post I pointed you to. Last but not least, Dream In Code!!!

[no2pencil]

GunnerInc, on 18 June 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

Get rid of that book, 16bit is basically dead and so is DOS. Unless you plan on getting a job working with 16bit code, it sucks. Graphics is limited, memory is limited, you are limited in many things you can do.

I rather enjoyed working on a boot loader in 16bit.

GunnerInc, on 18 June 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

Another good way to learn is the way many of us did, download source and play around with it to see what happens.

+1 this. Learn by example, & failure.

[Jeet.in]

Thank you so much for guiding me in the right direction. Thanks a lot.

GunnerInc, on 18 June 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

RadASM - I have been using this for years. Has a great resource editor, support for many languages, much better than WinASM IMO. You can always get the current version and source from KeitlO's SVN repository

Probably one of the best places on the net to learn Assembly is from Randy Hyde

Little problem. In the repository which file/files should I download? There are to RadAsm folders. Confused actually. Secondly, do you recommend R Hyde's Art of Assembly for HLA Programming?

[GunnerInc]

RadASM v2
RadASM v3 This is the only link you can get v3 from, not publicly available yet. Still beta I believe, but it is solid.

As for the homepage, what link gets blocked? http://radasm.cherrytree.at/radasm/ ? Can you get a different ISP? I didn't know ISPs in India block their users traffic, that would piss me off big time!

Here is one of the official Mirrors

[Jeet.in]

GunnerInc, on 19 June 2012 - 04:54 PM, said:

RadASM v2
RadASM v3 This is the only link you can get v3 from, not publicly available yet. Still beta I believe, but it is solid.

As for the homepage, what link gets blocked? http://radasm.cherrytree.at/radasm/ ? Can you get a different ISP? I didn't know ISPs in India block their users traffic, that would piss me off big time!

Here is one of the official Mirrors

Thanks GunnerInc. Sorry actually ISP's don't block any site, it's our university's over zealous sever security suite (from Trend Micro, and it sucks ! ) that blocks my access.
Thanks again.

[ishkabible]

Quote

I rather enjoyed working on a boot loader in 16bit.

bleh; get the real mode shit done and switch to protected as soon as possible.

[xoreaxeax]

Jeet.in, on 18 June 2012 - 02:07 AM, said:

Thank you very much for you suggestion no2pencil but I was looking for something a bit modern. For example WinAsm Studio or Easy Code - Visual assembler. Are they capable/suitable for learning or doing what you guys feel I need to do for the course. Actually I have got really used to syntax highlighting, easy file management etc. Or is it necessary to learn Assembly using DOS based apps. Please recommend me the right path.
Thanks Again.

I just started learning to code asm under Windows a few months ago, I simply installed the masm sdk package at masm32 and read through Iczelion's Tutorials. Good luck!