Is it worth it to learn a dialect of assembly? [closed]

Question

My goals are focused on software application development, and maybe web application development, but most likely desktop applications. I'm embarking on a path to becoming more familiar with C/C++, but should I go much lower than that, into assembly? Or would I not have a benefit for my long-term goals?

Answer 1

I am really surprised to see so many "no" answers to this question. I think you should learn assembly.

I do not expect that you would ever use assembly directly as part of your job. But it does not follow from that that you should not learn it.

Learning assembly will teach you about what is going on inside the computer. It will help you to understand what the software is actually doing.

It's really about professionalism. Are you going to be a professional software engineer? Or are you going to be a copy-and-paste hack? Sure, the latter may pay the bills, but being a professional is so much more satisfying.

To hear someone say, "Nah, don't bother learning assembly," sounds to my ears like "Here's the cookbook for building bridges. You don't need to learn about physics or engineering to build a bridge. Just follow these recipes." No, thank you.

Answer 2

G'day,

I learnt PDP assembler when I did my Elect. Eng. degree in the late '70's. The last dialect of assembler that I really used had four different modes of memory addressing. Last dialect I ooked at had 17 modes!

Not sure what learning assembler really gives you nowadays. Back then it was an essential part of a CS stream in my elect. eng. degree.

As to learning C++ I'd just sit down and work through "Accelerated C++" which approaches C++ in its own right and not as "C with other bits".

As to C, I'd just work through the latest version of "C Programming Lanuage" (a.k.a.) K'n'R

Hope this helps.

cheers, Rob

Now if you'd asked about nano-progrmming... (-: