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From: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: How much Assembler?
Message-ID: <9102280848.AA09969@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date: 28 Feb 91 08:48:52 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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In article <8455@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> matloff@iris.ucdavis.edu (Norm Matloff) writes:
>In article <1991Feb22.183040.29689@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> reid@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr Richard J. Reid) writes:
<
<<Over the years, we've shrunk the Assembly Language
<<coverage to a large portion of a one-quarter course.
<...
<<If there's going to be a following required semester course,
<<and it has an assembly language component or maybe even theme,
<<what else is in that same semester course? 
<<Or, is it possible that this type course can disappear
<<completely, or become an elective?
<
<You have hit on my pet project.  I have just written a book to
<serve as a "modernized" version of this old course (_IBM 
<Microcomputer Architecture and Assembly Language_, to appear 
<this Fall, published by Prentice-Hall).

I recommend the book.  (I've read the manuscript.)  No other book I've
seen covers the same material:  most either present the basics of computer
operation or teach 80x86 assembly language, but this is the only one I've
read which does both.  It's a fine book for students with some programming
experience (preferably in C or Pascal).

<I have a feeling that I may swimming against the tide here, i.e. 
<that your word "disappear" above may refer to the current trend.

Indeed it is.  Yale's computer "science" department doesn't use assembly
language in any of its courses (at least not at the undergraduate level).
I consider that unfortunate.

<Also, this forum is not the proper place for an advertisement
<for the book.  But the whole point of writing that book was that 
<I felt that the course does need to be modernized, not disappear, 
<so here is my "two cents' worth." :-)

It's a sorely needed two cents' worth, believe me.

<The
<"engine" being viewed "under the hood" consists of two 
<components, the machine architecture and the OS services.

Come on, Norm.  I thought I told you to get rid of those peculiar "hood"
and "engine" metaphors.  :-)

<Second, even if one always programs in a high-level
<language, system-related bugs will arise frequently, and these
<can't be solved without having some understanding of what's
<"under the hood"; this is especially true for C programming.

By "system-related bugs", do you mean bugs in the system or bugs in users'
programs that arise because of factors related to the internals of the system?
(I'm not disagreeing; I'm just asking for a clarification.)

					--Scott

Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1817                    Residence:  Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ
Uneasy lies the head that wears the _gao1 mao4zi_.