Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Very good November 27, 2008
This is a great book to learn Assembly language. I got this book because my teacher used it in my Computer Archictecture and Organization course. It's very well organized, covers a lot of subjects and has plenty of examples and illustrations to help.
 displeased October 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, I've had my book less than a month and a half, and the pages are coming out. They have separated from the binding. I don't use the book very often, and have never abused it, it is brand new, bought at the university bookstore, my softcover books have better binding.
Second, I was pretty excited going into this course, I had a few problems I was working on which I felt assembly would be a good choice for tackling them. However, the information is just so old that I can't even apply it. I have to use the engineering department computers (can't even use CS computers) which have a program that emulates the x86 architecture, and I run the programs in them.
Aside from a better understanding of what is going on behind my higher language programs, I feel this course is wasting my time. But heres the thing, I've seen people apply assembly to certain problems recently, so I can only assume that the book and class are just not up to date. It doesn't seem to be a problem of the language being outdated, it seems to be a problem in the book not keeping up, and since the class follows the book, it has picked up this same issue.
All in all, I went from excited to learn assembly to just trying to learn the bare minimum to get the grade and not have to deal with it. I don't know if I will ever try assembly again after this course, I've developed a bit of an aversion to it. It seems a little unfair, but my experience thus far has only turned me off.
I recommend you do not use this book.
Just what you need for IA-32 April 18, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The books its really step by step have very good example and exercises. It covers basically evreything and has a set of table where they cover all the registers and subroutines. It was really helpful while I was taking the class.
 Inappropriately Titled Tome February 17, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having written many 8086 assembly language programs many years ago, and after having used PPC and SPARC chips for a number of years, I decided to purchase this book to refresh my knowledge of Intel assembler. I was very disappointed in the contents of this book. The title would suggest that the subject matter covered relates to writing Intel assembly language perhaps in a platform agnostic manner, however the book should rather be titled "Assembly Language USING MASM for Intel based computers RUNNING WINDOWS". The book does not even seem to acknowledge that there are other OSs apart from Windows that run on Intel based machines, and also makes use of features and peculiarities of the MASM assembler. If you are looking for a text that will assist you in writing assembler using MASM for Intel based machines running Windows then this is it, otherwise stay well clear, and try to find a text that is less partisan.
You will learn some things, but you will encounter lots of errata and poor organization December 16, 2007
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I have read a lot of programming text books, but I have never seen so much errata before. My fellow classmates and I are amazed at the amount of errors.
It all started early with the book claiming that George Bool invented the Analytical Engine, instead of Charles Babbage.
We also wonder if the author just cranks out new editions and just adds a few things and doesn't update the rest of the book. It took me awhile to figure out the solution to an assignment, right out of the book, that didn't compensate for newer processors(or any processor in recent history). Actually it seems like it hasn't been changed for 7 years or longer or it's just plain errata. So, I was wondering for a long while why my programming assignment would not work. I finally figured out the book was the reason. Later on there was a programming exercise that required adding to existing code in the book, but when adding lines, it would not work. I would get jump too far errors.
This book could use some better organization too. Simply putting related things together in a chapter is not enough. Yes there is an index and appendices, but the organization in the chapters is poor. Better explanation would be great too.
I guess I am just spoiled by Deitel's books. They are great. Too bad they don't have one on x86 Assembly.
This book was supposed to have a cd-rom disc, but I don't think anyone got one. I sure didn't. The files on the cd-rom are required for the programming assignments to work. Luckily you can download the files off the web site. If you figure out that the files might be on the web site and you go there.
Finally, the binding is weak, I had to re-glue mine within a couple of weeks of receiving a new copy. My professor complained about the binding too. It's too thin(or something) to hold up.
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