Assembly Nights: Why I Write x86 Assembly on a 14-Year-Old Netbook Before Bed
After bedtime stories, I fire up a 2007 Asus eeePC 701 running Alpine Linux and port Richard WM Jones's JonesForth from GAS to NASM. Progress is slow—some macros took weeks—but the distraction-free ritual makes learning assembly feel automatic. I've stopped rushing toward a deadline; the point is the process, not the finished port. Next up: Forth Nights with Leo Brodie's books.
I sort of lost my way for a moment, thinking of the finished Forth port as the "point" of this exercise. It’s not. The learning process and the skills I acquire are the point.
- WalterGR
Here’s an archive.org mirror of the broken “Why no one should use the AT&T syntax ever, for any reason, under any circumstances” link: https://web.archive.org/web/20251128060318/https://outerprod...
- cellsstudio
Anyone noticing some pretty heavy skill atrophy from all the Claude/Codex use in the last few months?
I feel like this is a great way to get back to basics and keep the eng skills sharp. Maybe I should try something similar...
- hn_submit
Why would one choose NASM over FASM? The makers of KolibriOS (an OS written entirely in assembler) chose FASM but the reason eludes me.
To me all assemblers look alike and it would even be feasible to write one's own just for the heck of it.