From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jun 12 17: 5:50 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from fellspt.charm.net (fellspt.charm.net [199.0.70.29]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 426F837B93C; Mon, 12 Jun 2000 17:05:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dutch@charm.net) Received: from charm.net (coretel-185-237.charm.net [162.33.185.237]) by fellspt.charm.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA18468; Mon, 12 Jun 2000 20:05:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <39456CB2.E0329704@charm.net> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 00:05:22 +0100 From: Dutch Collins X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: John Baldwin Cc: Geoffrey Robinson , questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Learning Assembly References: <200006121624.JAA12067@server.baldwin.CX> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG John Baldwin wrote: > > On 10-Jun-00 Geoffrey Robinson wrote: > > I'm trying to learn assembly language for the enlightenment value. There > > is a lot of stuff out there but it is mostly DOS oriented. Can somebody > > please recommend an x86 assembly book for UNIX. > > Err, well. One of the goals of UNIX is portability. As a result, almost > everything is written in C, and assembly is used only when absolutely > necessary. Thus, in FreeBSD, the only assembly you will fine is in > the bootstrap in src/sys/boot, and in the machine-dependent sections of > the kernel code in src/sys/i386 and src/sys/alpha. Even then, a lot of > the machine dependent code is in C and not assembly. Anyways, assembly > isn't really all that enlightening, IMHO. The actual neat stuff is the > machine architecture. Intel has some really good manuals on their > architectures available as PDF's on developer.intel.com. > > > Thanks > > HTH. > > -- Good point. The last time I had to write in Assembly was on PDP-11/53. That machine's C, from Digital Equip. Corp., could not handle the interrupts from a custom box (that is all I can say). There is a place for Assembly so I don't think it hurts anyone when they 'stick a toe in the water', or whatever the saying is. Oh, sorry 'bout the mail, the name server barfed and I fought the wrong battle, duh! -d --- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message