[oclug] Assembler (was Re: Easiest and most useful language...)

[Greg Franks]

>>>>> "David" == David F Skoll <dfs at roaringpenguin.com> writes:

    David> On Tue, 6 Feb 2001, Andrew Hutton wrote:
    >> If your end goal is to learn how computers work... and you feel
    >> up to it... pick up a 68000 assembly book at a used book shop.
    >> ALL of the really clueful people I respect for their computing
    >> knowledge seem to have started with ASM of some kind.  It
    >> teaches respect, humility, and exactly WHY you do things a
    >> certain way.

    David> It depends on which assembler you learn.  I was lucky
    David> enough to learn 6809 as my first assembler language.  The
    David> Motorola 6809 was used in the Radio Shack Color Computer.
    David> Even though it was an 8-bit processor, it had a wonderful
    David> instruction set and many useful addressing modes.

    David> When I finally learned Intel assembler, I almost threw up.
    David> I'm sure if I'd started with x86 assembler, I would have
    David> been put off for life. :-)

I think that's why Andrew suggested 68000 assembler.  It's quite
regular* (given the the 68000 was supposed to be an improved PDP-11
ahh... memories: mov (r1+),(r2+); *p++ = *q++).  The 8086 is really
rather horrendous...

*(well, we'll forget about XOR..., and the 68020 extensions)

    David> -- David.

-- 
   __@               Greg Franks              <|       _~@ __O 
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