There aren't too many assembly language books on the shelfs at the book store. The shelfs are crowded with everything you can imagine in languages. I can't even read all the titles much less learn the languages. It must be that assembly is useless. Not so at all.
The student performance standards for almost every electronics course includes the study of microprocessors. All electronics schools have a collection of microprocessor "trainers". These are small computers with a simple microprocessor. They cost from $500 up. What they amount to is that the student inserts the machine code in hex and gets the simple results of addition, etc. They always loop and jump. They are useful as they allow the student to see what is going on in the microprocessor. It is hoped that the student has built a couple of registers to store numbers and a adder so that the process can be seen. I think every student should build a register and adder. It could be done in science class. Relays could be used so that the simple process of storing numbers as electrical voltage could be observed more directly.
The study of microprocessors is
good! Why buy microprocessor trainers? If you have computers why not use
them and study the most basic mode in which they will operate. Students love
it. They can write simple programs. I found that there was much more interest
than in the little trainer. The knowledge transfers to higher level
programming.
Computers that many school districts are dumping are fine for this purpose.
I used a couple of the oldest IBMs for a while.
The students shown here are working during their lunch break. They are writing assembly language programs. This program no longer exists. That is just a case of bad administration. It was decided that electronics and computer repair provide no jobs. No future in computer repair! Three of the four that I know about have great jobs.
Got it?
The study of assembly language helps the student who is going into programming. The only thing the programmers of Microsoft can do in insert machine code in memory. That is what assembly shows the student. Now Microsoft has some very complicated tools to insert that code with. If you understand programming at the most basic level then other languages are not as difficult.
You can insert fast and compact machine code into other languages. I find assembly easier than C++ for some small routines. Once you write a bit of code you can save it to your library and call it with a few words. Do you suppose that is Object Oriented Programming?
There are many jobs where people program in machine code. Many microprocessors are used in industry. They don't know Basic or C++. I know a man who is a supervisor for a medical equipment company. He loves for people to study assembly. It is necessary to program some of his equipment in machine code.
I have no idea where the notion that assembly language is more difficult than other languages came from. It is not so. The only problem is that writers have no ability to explain things so that they can be understood. Once you get through the poorly written texts it is all quite simple. Do it!
I learned C++ so that I could write software for my students. This is the
first piece of software that I wrote. It is an ohms law tutor for series
and parallel circuits. Students like it and they MUST learn the rules to
do the problems. Many students have used this and any beginning electronics
student can use it to advantage.
