Thread: C++ and Assembly

Currently taking some assembly classes, so I know a bit, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone with real-world experience coding assembly.

I found it interesting as a c++ programmer. I'd read as people discussed things such as function overhead, but only after taking assembly classes did I understand the details. It's also nice being able to look at small chunks of code and knowing roughly how complex it will be in terms of assembly.

At this point though I think the word "essential" is way, way too strong. Modern compilers are incredibly optimized, so you can't make assumptions about the code they will generate based on just a bit of assembly programming. Also, a lot of material in assembly is platform specific. Any of the insight you gain into the x86 or some motorola processor will really never transfer into a HLL like c++.

Of course if you're going to be working near the hardware, it does become important. If you wanted a job at nVidia, you should be looking into it seriously. But if you just want to be able to put "C++ programmer" on your resume, you should probably look at expanding your more universally applicable knowledge.

Disclaimer: I'm a student. All my knowledge of the professional world is second-hand (although I am a good listener). But I think the above is reasonable.

Also, learning anything computer related is never a waste. Even when it's not directly applicable to the field you assume you're going into.

Oh, one other important thing I forgot. Assembly forces you to know computer architecture. And I'm thinking that has to come in handy at some point.

Adding to what AH_Tze said, with the fact that knowing assembly gives you a better understanding of computer architecture, you tend to think about what your high level language code (C/C++/Pascal/etc) is doing behind the scenes. It isn't essential, because as AH_Tze also said, compilers are pretty good at making ASM level optimizations for you. However, many situations can come up where the compiler won't make a better decision than you, but that's usually because you are dealing with a specific situation; the compiler has to make sure it works will all code. However, just by learning ASM you won't see the opportunity for those situations easily. It takes many years of ASM before you're able to do that naturally(I'm hoping I'll get there in about 5-8 years).

Before going to ASM, it is better to try and organize your code so that the compiler spits out better ASM for you. Knowledge of ASM/computer architecture will allow to understand how you can achieve that. Methods such as seperating structs into hot/cold fields, using temporal writes, or unrolling loops will make sense along with countless other tricks.

You may also want to check some things out such as intrinsics or libraries like the SIMD data types (both are compiler specific I believe).

bottom line: It never hurts to learn another language.

Originally Posted by himanch

yea actually i made a profound reserach about this "Assembly Programming" and found out this book called "art of assembly programming" as the best resource ever and it says in the book that readers are expected to know C/C++, Basic, Pascal to start ot learn "Assembly"!!

Hands down the best book. Assembler syntax is quite different from C, but similar looking to pascal but overall unique. So bearing that in mind, since assembler really does require you to program creatively, other languages will either help guide you in being creative about it, or make you jaded and long for "writing a loop in C." High Level Assembler is a pretty good choice of languages since its just as the name suggests.

I'd still learn the non lazy way first though. To mean learning HL Asm first is like learning C++ first. People who learn C++ before focusing on C tend to be used to writing sloppy code.