Customer Reviews:
 EXCELLENT BOOK FOR BEGINNERS! September 1, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I highly recommend this book. I bought this book not to learn but to review Intel 80x86 assembly language programming. But, I believe it would be an excellent test to learn from. The author provides a working copy of MASM and a Windows Debugger to trace the execution of your code. You can see first hand what your instructions do as they execute. Also, there are PLENTY of hands on programming problems for you to code and run. This gives you the confidence to know that you actually learned something.
A SPECIAL SURPRISE for me was that Richard (the author) provided a whole chapter on FPU assembly language. Something that few texts cover. And the very few that do scarcely touch on the subject. So if you want to learn Intel FPU programming this book is for you. (FPU = Floating Point Unit).
WARNING: This book is NOT an advanced assembly language book. So, if you're looking to learn MMX technology commands and OS programming, this book is NOT for you. The title of the book is ESSENTIALS of 80x86 Assembly Language. It covers the basics of Intel 32-bit flat memory model console programming stilled used today. So, the book is not out of date, it just covers the basics.
I RECOMMEND that before you tackle this book, which isn't very thick, that you go through Jeff Deuntemann's Assembly Language Step by Step. Why? Well, even though Jeff's book doesn't give much hands on experience that Essentials of 80x86Assembly Language does. Jeff's book gives valuable information in novice terms that helps beginners bridge the gap from high level programming languages like C++ and Visual Basic to assembly language. So, I'd buy and read Assembly Language Step by Step before tackling ANY assembly language book on the market. I'd consider Jeff's book Pre-Assembly Language sort of like there are Pre-Calculus books. Then get this book (Essentials of 80x86 Assembly Language) or Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers by Kip R. Irvine. Both are excellent treatise on the subject.
 ancient history - horribly out of date September 11, 2006
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
I received this book in August 2006 from amazon with the assumption it would be as up-to-date as possible since it was just published. Inside the book, it says copyright 2007 --- *six months in the future*. Wow, this book should definitely be the most up-to-date information anywhere, right?
NOT. This book contains ZERO information about SIMD, SSE, etc. No SIMD instructions, no MMX or XMM registers, nothing-at-all. Furthermore, it contains ZERO information about 64-bit opcodes or architecture.
In other words, this 2007 book is intended for programmers who have time-machines and want to send the book to themselves about 15 or 20 years in the past. For that purpose, it is reasonable.
I believe this book is intentionally organized to fake people into buying it on false assumptions. Typically, modern books begin with statements of intended audience and conventions. Then, people who browse the early pages of the book online can understand what they are buying.
True, an advocate of this book could argue the term "80x86" should tell us this is a review of ancient history. However, that is merely a sound-bite cover-story, since they know many other assembly language and CPU/programming books refer to the whole series of 8086 through current Intel/AMD CPUs with this exact term "80x86". For example, "80x86" is the term Leiterman describes these architectures in his assembly language book, which includes architecture and opcodes through SSE3.
And of course, the author and publisher "accidentally" (my foot) forgot to make the table-of-contents, index, and early pages reviewable on the amazon web-site. How convenient! For them.
So, if you have a time machine handy, or only want to code for ancient CPU chips, and you prefer to hide from every efficient and modern feature added to CPU chips over the past decade, this is a simplistic presentation appropriate for total beginners.
Consider yourself warned.
I almost forgot!!! The same author has a seemingly identical book with a title that begins "Introduction to 80x86..." instead of "Essentials of 80x86..." on the amazon site, and scheduled for release on November 30, 2006 (it says). The same tricks seem to apply - they want us to click the "pre-order" button for yet another 80x86 book without table-of-contents, index, etc. Until we have some actual information, we must assume this is another ancient-history book. What's the cliche? Twice burned, shame on me? I say, shame on the author and publisher! To them I say, "make the TOC, index, into pages of your books visible". Frankly, amazon should force these guys to do that.
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