Great point. The only time I've been required (rather than for fun/hobby purposes) to write assembly was for a controller where we didn't have a C compiler.

Great point. The only time I've been required (rather than for fun/hobby purposes) to write assembly was for a controller where we didn't have a C compiler. Like I hinted, I followed the approach of writing in C (including testing it as much as possible on my desktop in C) and then hand-translating precisely because of what you mention -- by default there's no structure. I basically adopted the structures and conventions of the C language and C compilers and imposed them on my assembly code, since I was familiar with those, and know how to make working software using them. You could use another language's conventions. Or you could veer off into the wild, but there be dragons.