Programming from the Ground Up

Programming from the Ground Up uses Linux assembly language to teach new programmers the most important concepts in programming. It takes you a step at a time through these concepts: * How the processor views memory * How the processor operates * How programs interact with the operating system * How computers represent data internally * How to do low-level and high-level optimization Most beginning-level programming books attempt to shield the reader from how their computer really works. Programming from the Ground Up starts by teaching how the computer works under the hood, so that the programmer will have a sufficient background to be successful in all areas of programming. This book is being used by Princeton University in their COS 217 "Introduction to Programming Systems" course.

We were excited to publish this book for several reasons. First of all, very few books on assembly language deal with the Linux platform. In fact, most of the ones in use today are either stuck teaching MS-DOS 16-bit assembly language or teaching the MIPS architecture assembly language. Neither of these is particularly useful in modern programming, and 16-bit x86 assembly language is a complete nightmare for new programmers.

This book fills a real need right now. It is the only book available that (a) is readable by new programmers, (b) focuses on the cleaner 32-bit assembly language, (c) targets the Linux platform, and (d) uses the tools that are available standard on Linux distributions. The other Linux assembly language books require downloading and installing third-party assemblers, while this book uses the one that comes with the gcc tool chain.

This book also fills a need in the industry. Right now there are numerous programmers who either never got a formal education or went to a school that did not require assembly language programming. When you don't understand assembly language, you miss out on learning how the computer thinks and acts underneath the hood. This book has helped numerous programmers come back and learn assembly language and really understand how the computer works. If assembly language has been a "black magic" subject for you, this book will help you out.