pan1c

I'm anxious to get into assembly, I've already decided on a few things, but I don't know what tools would be best for my situation.

I have the basic idea of how assembly works with specifying different memory types and where certain values need to be for various calls but I really can't apply any of it just yet.

What I'm looking for.

I want to use an intel syntax assembler but it also needs to be compatible on both windows and linux. (or maybe 2 different assemblers that aren't too different in syntax).

Learning material, I own a hard-copy of the 6 intel developer manuals but they are really useless at the moment.


I really appreciate any advice you can provide.

Freaky Chris

http://www.arl.wustl.edu/~lockwood/c...ofasm/toc.html

Great resource

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Grich

First, look at the page Freaky Chris gave you. It's a great start.
Second, I use an assembler called NASM. It is free and can work on both Windows and Linux.
Also (you have to pay for this), get a book called step by step assembly. It's a great intro to coding assembly using nasm for DOS and Linux. It's the only book I recommend to get for beginners at assembly.

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SYNTAX ERROR ...

MasterWill

Great resource, Chris. I have added that to my bookmarks, even though I don't normally develop in Assembly (nice to have a good reference when I do drop down for speed).

Another good Assembler is MASM (Microsoft's assembler), but I am pretty sure that it does not work on Linux (it's amazing it works on Windows ... ). I have not tried taking code written for MASM and seeing if it will compile without any changes using NASM on Linux, but one would assume that some changes would be necessary simply because you are talking about two different OSes and two different kernels.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried writing an assembly app and running it on Vista? With all the "security" features that Microsoft has put into the OS, I wonder if you can still use assembly apps/routines for low-level, speedy routines or if it will get flagged as trying to do something "inappropriate" according to the OS.

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lectricpharaoh

Not to mention two different assemblers, with different syntax. NASM syntax is pretty close to MASM syntax- much more so than gas, which uses the AT&T syntax- but it's by no means the same. Perhaps the most significant difference is the use of square brackets for referencing a memory operand (omitting the brackets uses the value of the address, similar to using the OFFSET directive in MASM). Macros also have different syntax and semantics, so be sure to read the docs to avoid some nasty surprises. Lastly, NASM lacks a lot of the superfluous 'red tape' directives that MASM, TASM, etc use, which (in my eyes) makes the code much cleaner.
There are only two ways I can see an OS (Vista or otherwise) trapping a piece of code as doing something that's potentially dangerous. First would be if the code tries to use a privileged instruction and the CPU raises an exception. Second is if it calls, directly or indirectly, an API function that the OS recognizes (however it does so, metadata being one possible mechanism) as being dangerous. Both of these have everything to do with what the code is doing, and nothing to do with how it was generated.

In other words, I can't see why it would matter if the code was compiled, assembled, or even written by sticking raw opcodes together with a hex editor.

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Grich

Ha Ha I remember a mate doing that for an assignment!

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SYNTAX ERROR ...

MasterWill

I would assume so too, but knowing how Microsoft is and the overly protective nature of Vista -- it asks if you really want to run "Notepad" as it may be a risk to do so -- I was curious if anyone knew of any measures that may have been put in place to monitor application activity. I would not be surprised if they have done so, perhaps at the kernel level as you mentioned where a warning of some sort is raised when you try and make a possibly destructive system call, i.e. trying to delete a file or format a partition.

You know, just thinking about it, you're absolutely right - they wouldn't know from where the code came. I guess I was originally thinking about low-level system calls vs going through the NET framework, but didn't quite get that out. hmm ... brain cramp, I suppose

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pan1c

Sorry, been away - actually I forgot about this until I read some of my filtered email, anyways - Chris, that is really an amazing page. used it a bit so far.


NASM is what I was thinking about I wasn't sure about other possibilities MASM isn't really in question if its win only - maybe once I have a better understanding.


Step by step assembly, I believe I have the ebook to that around here somewhere. Since Its recommended I will have to dig it up.

About the whole Vista and stuff... wut? LOL!

Thanks everyone.

Grich

Don't go there ... you may never come back. If you want to use Assembly with vista (Good luck), use MASM.

ADDON: I don't know anyone who does programming in a 64-BIT environment with Assembly.

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SYNTAX ERROR ...

pan1c

I've been trekking through Assembly Language Step-by-Step. Turns out, its a really good book. Understanding a handful of what was presented in the earlier chapters made it a bit of a bore, but other than that the author is very good it has so far been much less cumbersome then trying to find a good book on C.

Now the assembly begins, was able to read/skim/skip up to chapter 6 ( 6 of 13 chapters and 5 appendixes )