I am willing to learn assembler programming.
The book I am using for now (The Art of Assembly Language 2nd) tells me to start with HLA.

How can I manipulate FASM to use HLA syntax? Is that command format at the start?

I am complete beginner btw.

you can maybe create an include file with a lot of macros to make the traduction of hla into any instruction set (x86, arm, etc) but you will loose the benefits of 1instruction = 1opcode of native asm. but it is possible. you can look into the "non x86 architectures" topic to have an idea of what you need

All right. Is there any up to date tutorial for 32/64 Assembler quite suitable for the beginner, which I am? We have 2014 and most recent guides are from 2010: ages in technology.

Thanks for answer!

Katharsis, at first learning HLA, you will know HLA, not assembly. The name "Art of assembly..." is misleading and shows only the delusions of its author.

At second, for beginner it is not needed to learn the cutting edge of the technology. The assembly language is pretty the same for very long time. So, simply learn from any accessible source.

Writing your programs (even simple) will speed the learn process enormously, because assembly is a practical language and writing is even more important than reading.

Try to download some simple examples, compile them, try to change something, expand it a little and so on...

I would feel more confident if I would have learned principles first as I know very little about prcoessor registries, memory etc. That is why I am searching for anything like mentioned earlier tutorial, guide. It looked rather comprehensive compared to other sources.

Is there any guide including practical examples that is suitable for FASM? Most of links on forum dont work anymore, place seems bit outdated

BTW I am using win8 so 16 bit applications cannot be used in my example. Is there any way to make .com files comaptible with Win8 and any other 64bit system? I know about DOSbox solution, but it is simply very uncomfortable...

I would suggest the same as JohnFound.

Use FASM to write some simple programs and once you have
questions -- just ask them here.

I am puzzled by the fact, that there is no FASM tutorials for beginners.
That is a bug and should be fixed.


Why DOSBox is uncomfortable?
I think it is easy to use.
Or, you can happily forget MS DOS and begin with Windows Console applications.

I have written some beginners tutorials but they are in Bulgarian language and I don't have time to translate them. (And also I am afraid with my English skills, the translation will be a funny reading. )

You have to refresh the directory each time you edit any file into it. Which means that I have to mound and unmount drive each time. Kind of deconcetrating.

Cyrillic alphabet haha I am native Polish speaker: close, but not exactly that

Guess that I will have to search for new sources and experiment myself. Well if I am going to have any questions gonna ask them here. Meantime if anyone have any additional ideas, please write them here!

Thanks for help everyone

Ctrl-F4 refreshes directories for all drives (it does more but this is irrelevant in the context; default DOSBox keybinding is assumed).

Make yourself familiar with a decent debugger for your target platform (that may be Turbo Debugger for DOS and OllyDbg for Win32; they even share some of their default keymappings). DOS debug.exe may be used as an educational tool too: its commands are simple yet powerful (no flashy UI though). Most debuggers allow you to assemble instructions interactively, thus you may write short programs right withing them.

Intel SDM/AMD APM are the must-reads. You don't need to swallow them as a whole, just chew bit by bit, making sure you understood them right by experiments. Surely the first things to focus at should be related to your target platform (real mode for 16-bit DOS, protected mode for Win32, etc.)

Keep those API references handy; RBIL/MSDN are invaluable for DOS/Windows programming.

As a last suggestion, patience and perseverance are what you may need the most of all.