4 ms·
On the contrary, I felt that understanding where x86 had come from helped me understand the reason why the registers were named what they were, why some instruc
by coopierez 5y ago
On the contrary, I felt that understanding where x86 had come from helped me understand the reason why the registers were named what they were, why some instructions are longer than others, etc.
It's confusing as a beginner to encounter the "di" and "dx" registers, and to understand why the 8-bit version of "r13" is "r13b" but the 8-bit version of "rdx" is either "dh" or "dl".
- sabas123 5y agoI think if you start from a point where you need to know all the registers beforehand you already lost. I like x64 a lot more because IMO it allows you a few important memory related ones in x86 making life a lot simpler.
- _8j50 5y agoWouldn't it be better if you knew about all the current registers first then learn about older types? I learned like most people X32 first and I feel like I still read X64 relative to X32.
- coopierez 5y agoI suppose it depends how you learn! For some it is likely better to do what you suggested and start with what's current and then work backwards - but for me I needed to know why certain limitations were in place, and that required me to start at the beginning and work forwards. As a newer developer this is a problem I've had with computing in general - a lot of newer languages, web frameworks, etc. are solving problems that I only understand through seeing what came before me. For example - why should I care about memory ownership if I've never tried to write a large-scale C program?