Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!hacgate!ashtate!tomr
From: tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Material on .ASM subtleties sought
Keywords: .ASM  optimization
Message-ID: <1068@ashton.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jul 90 17:18:50 GMT
Reply-To: tomr@ashton.UUCP (Tom Rombouts)
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Torrance, CA
Lines: 30

I am a roughly intermediate C coder, and have linked in a 
variety of pre-written .ASM routines into small C applications.
I now seek references on 8086 assembly language that are more
than just teaching of opcodes.  Specificly, my questions are: 

What are the main priciples in optimizing .ASM code?  (Down to the
clock ticks level)  What type of C constructs might typically be
worth attempting to hand optimize?  (And which ones not.)

And the most important (IMHO) questions of all:

WHEN is it practical to go to assembly rather than a more portable
language such as C?  How can assembly be developed to make it
re-usable and understandable by others?

Two that seem good from quick scans are "The Zen of Assembly Language" 
and "Structured Assembly."  Also, the recently released "Spontaneous
Assembly" library by basetwo looks interesting.  Peter Norton's book
is pretty good on structured techniques, but contains almost no information
on using it assembly in conjunction with other languages.

Any experiences or comments out there?  Any BBS collections
of generic .ASM routines that are worth tracking down?  Or might
it be best to just keep attempting to perfect my C knowledge?

(I personally think assembly language is becoming a lost art, and
that it can produce significant payoffs in time critical applications
such as database processing or graphics display.)

Tom Rombouts  Torrance Techie  tomr@ashtate.A-T.com  V:(213) 538-7108