Member Avatar for Jack_9

I Assembly even worth learning if your not going to be developing the root of an os? I've considered it but it just seems worthless.

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Short answer to : it depends on what you want to do. As and observed, assembly is an old tool and not required for most day‑to‑day app work. What makes it worth a small investment is the control and visibility it gives into what the CPU and compiler actually do — not to replace higher‑level languages, but to diagnose, verify, and squeeze predictable behavior out of code when needed.

A practical way to learn without becoming an assembler jockey:

  • Pick a small ISA (as suggested, start simple), write tiny C functions, and compile to assembly.
  • Use Compiler Explorer or gcc -O2 -S -masm=intel / clang -O2 -S to produce .s files and compare optimization levels.
  • Trace how a source line maps to registers, stack layout, and branches; note prologue/epilogue sequences and how inline functions or intrinsics change output.

Example code to inspect:

int sum(int *a, int n) {
  int s = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) s += a[i];
  return s;
}

Useful tools and tips: read disassembly with objdump -d or gdb’s disassemble, map crash addresses with addr2line -e, profile with perf to find hot loops, and prefer compiler intrinsics or separate .s files over brittle inline asm. Learn ABI/calling conventions and how compilers allocate registers — that knowledge pays off faster than memorizing every opcode.

When to invest: if you work on embedded/firmware, real‑time systems, performance hotspots, JITs, security/reverse engineering, or compiler/runtime internals, learn more deeply. Otherwise, learn to read and reason about assembly: that smaller skill gives the best practical return for most developers.

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Member Avatar for Dani

Not every language is a fit for everyone. Some people enjoy low level languages and some people enjoy high level languages. But assembly certainly isn't worthless considering everything else is built on top of it!! Everything needs a strong and sturdy foundation, and people to make sure that one gets put in!

Member Avatar for Schol-R-LEA

A lot of the answer to this is a matter of perspective, to be honest. In the end, all programs come down to machine code, and assembly language is a direct analog to machine code (mostly). However, that's not far different from saying that all matter comes down to electrons, protons and neutrons - it is true, and understanding it important, but for most purposes it is too low-level to be relevent.

The main places where assembly is directly relevant today is in the implementation of compilers, in the writing of system software such as device drivers, and - this is the important one - in debugging natively compiled code. The ability to debug at the assembly level is actually quite useful, and is too often overlooked these days. It shows you exactly what is happening inside the movement of data, which can save a great deal of effort if you know how to do it.

I would argue that assembly language is less important for its immediate applications than it is for the insight it gives to the way languages actually work - sort of like learning Latin in order to get a better grip on the Romance languages. I do recommend it, as it will make you a better programmer if you learn at least enough to read a program listing, but it is not for everyone, and it is by no means a necessity for the overwhelming majority of applications programmers.

I would add that I would recommend learning MIPS or ARM first before tackling x86 assembly. The Intel platform is ubiquitous, but it is also a damn mess, and if your learn a simpler one first you won't be as confused later on.

Member Avatar for AceStryker

First of all, you need to understand that assembly is a very old language(created after the WW2), by that you should understand that in it's time it was a very handy tool, now-a-days it isn't that important because we already have debugging tools with the pre-compiled code.

But don't forget that it's still the most easy-reading thing you can get from a compiled app(assuming you're a normal person that don't understand hex or binary), and is used in OS creating, malware analysis and driver writting.

Is it important?I believe so if you want a powerfull tool to check how your app is doing.Is it vital?No, you can live without it.But it's far from useless.

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