The Art of Assembly Language

Randall Hyde

NO STARCH PRESS

San Francisco

Copyright 2003 Randall Hyde.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

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Publisher: William Pollock
Managing Editor: Karol Jurado
Cover and Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Copyeditor: Kenyon Brown
Proofreader: Stephanie Provines
Compositor: Wedobooks

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The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Hyde, Randall.

The art of assembly language / Randall Hyde.
p. cm.

1-886411-97-2

1. Assembly language (Computer program language) 2. Programming languages (Electronic computers)
I. Title.
QA76.73.A8H97 2003
005.13′6–dc21 2003000471

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has literally taken over a decade to create. It started out as "How to Program the IBM PC, Using 8088 Assembly Language" way back in 1989. I originally wrote this book for the students in my assembly language course at Cal Poly Pomona and UC Riverside. Over the years, hundreds of students have made small and large contributions (it's amazing how a little extra credit can motivate some students). I've also received thousands of comments via the Internet after placing an early, 16-bit edition of this book on my website at UC Riverside. I owe everyone who has contributed to this effort my gratitude.

I would also like to specifically thank Mary Phillips, who spent several months helping me proofread much of the 16-bit edition upon which I've based this book. Mary is a wonderful person and a great friend.

I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to William Pollock at No Starch Press, who rescued this book from obscurity. He is the one responsible for convincing me to spend some time beating on this book to create a publishable entity from it. I would also like to thank Karol Jurado for shepherding this project from its inception — it's been a long, hard road. Thanks, Karol.