Survey posted 2000-04-05 01:54 by Andy.

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That's a tough question. Maybe you mean how long did it take you to get fairly good at asm? It may take someone one day to read a tutorial and write a "Hello World" program, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to program in assembly. There's a lot more to learning how to program than just the language. Unlike BASIC, assembly requires knowledge of the hardware as well, such as what ports do what, and how to communicate through them. Anyway, this rant is too long already, so I'll just finish by saying that even though I've been programming asm for quite some time now, I'm still learning.

-Kouri

you need to know about the ports? oh well i don't :) but um...anyways...I would guess around a month just cause i rock :) but um i would say i was fairly good around 1 month...but right now i'm relearning it :) oh well :)

I think what they are asking is. How long did it take for you to learn ASM enough so where if someone were to ask you some questions like on RAM calls and stuff that you would be able to answer. Also you should proboly know how to make sprints work in the ASM programs. I don't know though. thats just my opinion on how to answer the question.

I just chose 1 year because Im SURE that it will take me at least that long to get as profficient at it as I am in BASIC. Then I can Make games that work in my TI-83 ROM 1.10! hehe...still, without a good, shall I say, school curriculim to follow, I'm learning it in my spare time. (schools, though they may be useless sometimes, still have lessons worked out that would have a bit more in-depth coverage than a tutorial would. You know what I mean)

I agree. I could write really simple programs after a week or two. It took me a few more weeks before I could write simple games (like pong). It took me a few months before I could write programs of any real complexity. I started Super Mario 86 about a year after I started to learn asm. I've been fine-tuning my skills ever since but I still have plenty of room for improvement.

I took it to mean "How long did it take you to UNDERSTAND assembly?" - as in, how long did it take you to grasp the language and learn to code in it efficiently?

Or just ask Andy, he posted it ;P

--BlueCalx

Well in my opinion, once you start to learn to deal with registers, and moving data in and out, and the basic priciples of assembly, you can apply them across the board. (only you hit brick walls left and right in a new assembly if it doesn't have all the registers/memory/opcodes you're used to) I took an assembly class in College, where we learned HC6811 assembly. I literally sat down, looked over the instruction set, and knew the language. 'course it had 2 8-bit registers, and 2 16-bit ones, and a very limited instruction set, so I was running around constantly going "ACK! NO REGISTER!" (register suffocation sucks.)

anyways, ranting...

Damn! that musta sucked
Man I wonder how many times youd needed the stack just for simple stuff

this question seems a tad too general; I took only about a month learning some of the commands, but it takes awhile to learn the logic of using them in different ways.

Uh...it's been a month since i started to learn assembly and now the most complex program i could write is a sprite moving around an empty area. Does that count? I couldn't write a game like tunnel or something simple if my life depended on it right now...well...maybe if my life depended on it.

im right there with ya, lol

Just keep at it, after a while you'll get better. When I was programming Love Calculator 86 ASM version, after a while, I no longer needed to look up commands or procedures, I just remembered how to do everything. After that, then the bigger, grander programs start, if I can find some time :(

Brian

Hey, you can program asm better than I can! The most advanced thing I can do is...text :( It is just too complicated for me. Then I lost me 83 :( so until I get a new 83 or another calcuator, no need to program. Wait I take that back, I do have my rom stored on me puter. Now if there was a C or C-like compiler for z80. Then I could make some good stuff :)

yeah baby! for some reason C (as well as C++, and BASIC) all have this top-to-bottom-left-to-right flow in the source code...but when I read ASM, it kinda just goes where it wants...defining this sprite moving that line...walking that dude...freezing my calculator (ergh...!)...if anyone has tips for non-shell programming 83 Plus...help me man! (or girl...whatever..)
Steve

If you didn't put 1 Year down then you are either lying or have a much higher IQ than mine.

Or you could have interpreted the question differently.

For example, my timeline is:

1-1/2(?) years ago: Tried to learn assembler. Dismissed it days later as "too complicated"

About 9-12 months ago: Rediscovered assembly, learned it in order to make my FreeCell game much faster

About 4-5 days later: Knew enough to start making simple routines for FreeCell.

A week later: Gave up on FreeCell because it wouldn't work.

5 months later: Fixed the bugs and released it.


Depending on what starting and ending points I use (and how accurate my memory is), it can be anywhere between 3 days and 1 year(!) I personally said one week.
(And yes, I know now that I should have started with simpler programs, and not programmed the whole thing before the first compile. So sue me.)

Thank goodness you rediscovered assembly, Freecell is awesome!

Actually, my FreeCell program was for the TI-85 (Usgard). The TI-86 FreeCell, which I assume is the one you have, is completely unrelated and was made by somebody else.

Y'know, Jason, I think that the main problem with many people and ASM is that they simply don't have the patience for it. Like you, I know that you know ASM like, perfectly, but you just weren't motivated enough. Then, after I smacked you around some, you went and fixed FreeCell. And just the other day, you made that undo feature. So I don't think it's intelligence or anything, just lack of motivation/time.

BTW, Jason and I go to the same school.

I put down: 1-day
You might say that I'm lying, but I finished my first game (orbix) within a week of even finding out I could program the 86 in asm.

A week later I turned out my second game (frogger).

After that I just played around in many areas of TI-CALC asm:

I made a program that uses interupts to display a greyscale image in the background of the calc while you work (intgs)

I worked on an advanced menuing system that used complex structures and multi-level pointers to be used for various applications.

Before 3 month's had passes i wrote a tutorial on a86 programming, which can be found here: www.calpoly.edu/~tllilleh/a86/a86.html

shortly after that I became bored with a86 programming and moved on to bigger and better things...

I'm not saying that I have a "much higher IQ" than you, I'm just saying that people can learn certain things faster than others.

you probably knew alot more about programming than I did when i started.

The only thing that I knew when i started Z80 ASM was Ti-Basic

nevertheless i made the game avalanche in about 3 weeks