I started a personal campaign to teach myself assembly language, and searched out books that might help. I bought this book because I own a number of "Step-By-Step" books and the blurb sounded good. Unfortunatly, it turned out to be a dissapointment.

The author prides himself on the fact that he uses an "unusual" method to teach a hard subject, and equally proud that he will not do a "complete" job. And then proceeds to work on chapter after chapter of thin analogy without actually getting to real assembly programming. Now I'm all for "unusual" methods of teaching, but only when they actually work. Reading this book left me more confused than ever.

And of course, to top it off, it's about 10 years old.

I really hate to spend more time on this book, but I wanted to express at least a little bit of my opinion. If I would recommend a book, this other one is worth the money. I even found out that ASU uses it as a textbook, and it's cheaper on amazon.

Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers (5th Edition)

Additionally, I'd do a google search for winasm, radasm and masm32. All three have wonderful forums to help people learn how to create assembly programs.

This book is a MUST for anyone taking Assembly Language in a computer science class. Most books on assembly language leave out some VERY important information. Most programming languages are basically the same and require the same logic to use. There is a an important difference between assembly language and other languages like C or Java.

Just like a procedural language like C and an object-oriented languages like C++ or Small Talk requires a difference thought process, so does Assembly Language versus C++ or C#. Jeff does a masterful and humorous job of bridging that gap.

This book shouldn't be titled "Assembly Language Step by Step" it should be called "Pre-Assembly Language." The book actually teaches very little Assembly Language, instead, it teaches foundational corner stones such as memory models, CPU function, memory access, binary and hexadecimal numbering systems, and registers. These things are generally glossed over in most text books, yet end up being the most important part. Jeff realized this flaw in other books and wrote this classic. The time to get this book is a semester BEFORE you take a class in Assembly Language, THEN that class in Assembly Language will make more sense. Especially if your going to learn Assembly Language on Intel's 80x86 architecture.

If you're going to learn MIPS or RISC processor assembly language, I'd still recommend Jeff's book. But, I'd also get "SPARC Architecture, Assembly Language Programming, & C" by Richard P. Paul. Richard does a great job like Jeff, but orients his text toward RISC computers.

I HAVE A COUPLE OF WARNINGS: Jeff recommends "Mastering Turbo Assembler" by Tom Swan as the next step. This recommendation is seriously out of date. You can't by Borland Turbo-Assembler new anymore, and the book deals with mostly 16-bit code. Instead, you should get "Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers" by Kip Irving. This text is up to date with 32-bit code.

Jeff also recommends a book by Michael Abrash. Though Mike's "Black Book" was a great text, it's out of date. I'd recommend that instead you buy "Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage" by Kris Kaspersky since it's more up to date..

IMPORTANT TO PURCHASERS: Jeff's book "Assembly Language Step by Step" comes with a disk with NASM and programs examples. Unfortunately, they're "READ-ONLY" when you copy them from the disk to the hard drive. You have to change the attribute on every single file to get the program to work. Still NASM and the NASM-IDE are a great addition to the book. If you remove the "READ-ONLY" attribute, you should have no problem.

I hope Jeff will come out with a Third edition to this classic. "Assembly Language Step by Step" should be required as a prerequisite to any Assembly Language class.

At page 151, author said "That's why I began at the real beginning, and took 150 pages to get to where the other guys start."

That is really true, 150 pages wasted!!!

The author is trying to be funny, but actually made it look even worse.
If you are interested in assembly language, there are several online tutorials which are actually much better than this book.

At page 151, author said "That's why I began at the real beginning, and took 150 pages to get to where the other guys start."

That is really true, 150 pages wasted!!!

The author is trying to be funny, but actually made it look even worse.
If you are interested in assembly language, there are several online tutorials which are actually much better than this book.

The first couple hundred pages review number bases, computer architecture, and for the most part answer that perplexing question, how does a computer work? The author then covers assembly language in DOS, which is kind of outdated but still very informative. At the very end of the book the author covers assembly language in Linux. Even if you are not looking to learn assembly language I recommend this book. It is very informative and a must have for any programmer.

This book was excellent! It starts with the basics and works you though the steps required toward working with Assembly. Even if not programming,. it gives great insight on understanding the inner working of the processor and memory. A definite must for those interested in debugging the Intel processor.

This book will teach you how to program in Assembly

No doubt about that. But it WILL put you to sleep.

If you can endure lengthy explainations
then you may find this book useful.
And you can always pick up little things from different sources.
This is a great alternative source.

Otherwise check out:
"Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers (4th Edition)"

For a more fast paced, easier to understand method of coding ASM programs.

This book appears to be good for true beginners. It is, however, quite large and for its size still chooses to put some important details "out of scope". Its choice to remain with NASM, even in the Linux world, is a little frustrating and limits the books use.
But it is an easy read, and does cover the most basic stuff (such as computer design, file formats, etc).

This book will teach you how to program in Assembly

No doubt about that. But it WILL put you to sleep.

If you can endure lengthy explainations
then you may find this book useful.
And you can always pick up little things from different sources.
This is a great alternative source.

Otherwise check out:
"Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers (4th Edition)"

For a more fast paced, easier to understand method of coding ASM programs.

Last semester, I checked this book out from our school library and absolutely fell in love with it - it's superb. The author Duntemann has a clear, fresh, and very light writing style that's not loaded down with an overabundance of superfluous "geek-speak". Before delving into new concepts, Duntemann tries to get the reader to grasp, in a real world sense, how the concepts apply to the machine.

Considering that universities nowadays spew sizzling venom on the "difficult", "slow", and "forgotten" art of machine language, I've done my research by reading the opinions of what real programmers (who've worked in the industry probably longer than I've been alive) have to say about assembly language -- Every article or column I've read has convinced me that learning assembly language is not only a mechanism to speed up sections of your code, but it's a forgotten goody most programmers today lack, and if you're up to the challenge, coding in assembly is the perfect addition to your "bag of programmer's tricks".

Duntemann's book is perfect for beginners of assembly language, and I do mean beginners. Be forewarned, however: this book will NOT make you an assembly programming pro; it probably won't even knock you into the 'intermediate assembly coder' category, either. This book is a stepping stone to other more detailed books, and if nothing else, it teaches you how to THINK in assembly language, rather than learning the "nuts and bolts" of assembly. AN EXCELLENT BOOK.

The author starts this book out very strangly, but once you get into it you find that his craziness is well deserved. Programming is very difficult, but learning the basics is even harder. It starts out helping a person understand the numbering system of computers and then moves on into the meat of Assembly Language.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an assembly class or anyone who wants to learn how programming language like Java, C, C++ or others translate their code to instructions that the computer understands. Those instructions are in assembly and the other languages use assembly to assess computer parts to make everything work.

This book is great for assembly language beginners and programmers, It could even help fill in missing information for experienced programmers. I would love to see this guy write a book on disassemmbling.

I have som books on assembly, they handle the part about memory-models whery litle or not att al. This book is about all that stuff you dont find in the other books. This book is not about a lot of instructions.. its about where to put your funky numbers and bits. Buy this one and "IBM PC Assembly Language and Programming"(Peter Abel), thats all you need!
If the two book where one,.. the rating would be a 5+!

I bought this book with the expectation that it would assist me in learning assembly for linux. The book provides only minimal background on linux, significantly the book largely ignores how to make system call within linux. If your looking to learn assembly for windows using NASM, this may be the book for you. However, the author in my opinion includes a lot of useless background information, for example the author spends an entire chapter dicussing how to use his own assembly tool built with pascal.

This book filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge about computers in general as well as introducing me to the world of assembly language. I didn't know how much I didn't know until I read this text.

The book is enjoyable and easy to read. If I had it to do over again, this is probably the first computer programming book I would read. The author really explains the concepts in simple terms that are easy for even a novice to understand. I found parts of the book moving along a bit slowly for my taste, but I was certainly able to reatin all the knowlege.

The first 150-200 pages is mostly background. I found some useful morsels of information through these sections, although I was able to read through them quite quickly. Then there's about 200 pages on assembling for DOS and another 120 pages on assembling for LINUX. All parts of the book are relevant to each other.

If you are new to assembly, or want to fill in some gaps in you knowlege this is a great book to start with. If you have programmed in assembly before, you will probably be disappointed with this book.

If you have found other assebler books hard to understand, this is something to you. Duntemann could teach even an ape to write an assebler program.

Unfortunately there is too much about DOS and 16-bit segmented mode. More about Linux, please. Assembler in Windows isn't so difficult that Duntemann claims.

It is very pleasant book to read and it catches your attention in very rare way.

Learning assembly language for the first time is often a harrowing experience. It can be greatly worse if you are trying to learn it on your own. For those of you who are trying to do just that with x86 assembler, this is a great starting point. This text opens by covering the basics of arcitecture as well as binary and hexadecimal, giving the future assembly programmer a background in the all-important workings of the computer. While far from a thorough approach of x86 assembly, this book is one of the best introductions possible for independently learning low-level programming.

For beginners in low-level programming, I give this 5 stars. For those with previous (non-x86) low-level programming experience, I give this 3 stars (due to its treatment of rudimentary subjects with which they would already be familiar). This text is not recommended for individuals who have had x86 programming experience unless it is to be used as a quick "refresher" on the basics. A suggested follow-up text for this is Peter Abel's IBM PC Assembly Language and Programming (5th Edition).

The problem with learning Assembly Language is learning everything you need to know before you learn Assembly. This book starts you at the very beginning by showing you how memory is addressed, how the internals of the computer work, and numbering systems. Although he doesn't really get into programming until later in the book, by the time he gets there you actually understand what is going on at a low level. And let's face it... if you don't understand the low level of the computer, you don't stand a chance at really understanding Assembly Language. This book should be the starting point for anyone who wants to learn Assembly. Once you've mastered this book, you should be able to pick up any more advanced book and understand what is going on.

I've read numerous c and assembler books and this is, by far, one of my all time favorites. It's unbelievably well written and very easy to follow. The text walks you through PC fundamentals, including 16bit and 32bit memory models, I/O basics, and basic linux assembly. I picked this book up, along with Pratical C Programming from O'Reilly, and now my code seems to write itself.

If your new to programing, especially c, then I can't recommend this book enough. It'll give you much of what you need to make sense of lower level operations. It's also a great start for anyone interested in hacking the linux kernel.

I'm taking assembly language as part of my CS courses. If you need to learn assembly language don't buy this book. The author doesn't even touch assembly language until chapter 7!
Chap 1, a high level overview but not very informative
Chap 2, base numbering systems, a waste of 30 pages
Chap 3, a basic computer architecture review, another waste of 30 pages
Chap 4, Covers text editors, dos files, and other basic junk, more wasted pages.
Chap 5, 30 pages to cover the freakin NASM-IDE tool that comes with the book. It's a freakin dos editor for pete's sake. A waste of 40 pages.
Chap 6, 40 pages to cover memory architecture, boring. Have we coded yet? Nope!
Chap 7 Finally he covers the assembly language syntax.
Chap 8 - 11, Actually covers assembly language programs, but the examples are lame.
Chap 12 -13 is coding for Linux, about 200 pages

My advice if your professor sticks you with this book is to search the web or buy another book.