Skip to content
HomeVideosBooks
AllTopicsTrends
BlogsPodcasts
HistoryListsWatch laterLiked videosFollowing

The videos, books, blogs and podcasts Hacker News keeps recommending, all in one place.

VideosBooksBlogsPodcastsAboutPrivacySettings

Data from Hacker News, HackerTube, HackerBooks, HackerBlogs and Open Library. Credits · Not affiliated with Y Combinator.

HomeVideosBooksBlogsPodcasts
Ctrl K
    Cover of Low-Level Programming

    Low-Level Programming

    Igor Zhirkov · 2017

    Programming
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    3recommend
    8mentions
    4people
    2019–2026years
    88% recommend13% neutral

    Mentions per year

    20192020202120222023202420252026

    What Hacker News says

    1. rramadassAug 2026
      Related;

      1) All Assembly/C++ books by Daniel Kusswurm.

      2) Low-level Programming: C, Assembly, and Program Execution on Intel 64 Architecture by Igor Zhirkov.

      thread
    2. rramadassNov 2025
      Low-Level Programming: C, Assembly, and Program Execution on Intel x86-64 Architecture by Igor Zhirkov.
      thread
    3. sim7c00Jun 2024
      got a book Low Level Programming by igor zhirkov. IT's not technically a course, but he wrote it for his teaching (his classes won a lot, a lot of prizes).

      It's ofcourse, about low level programming, but since, the lower levels underpin the higher ones, for me the most useful thing was this book.

      It was a super challenge for me personally (no degree in computing or anything), and working through it i felt more things click than any other resource i tapped into before. I feel i understand much better in any language now, what actually happens on the PC, and how to go about investigating what happens if i do not. (finding specifications, isa documents, documentation on interpreters of scripts etc. etc., learning to read code/sources.)

      That being said, do you have a specific direction in which you want to improve? Because this obviously leans towards a specific flavor of programming, where it's maybe not as useful if you want a different flavor. I know many good/professional programmers who know nothing of this stuff and are really really good in their own domains.

      thread
    4. sim7c00Apr 2024
      Low Level Programming by igor zhirkov even though its not really about assembler specifically. it has a good chapter on it and teaches good to apply knowledge of machine-code/assembly to an architecture/system (amd64 in this case), and then spends a lot of time to teach how to translate that upwards to higher languages rather than downward. teaches u to find out and research stuff yourself too. he's a good teacher.

      know its not about llvm and jit etc. - but imho the basics is first this, and then moving up. otherwise it's confusing.

      thread
    5. rramadassFeb 2020
      Assuming you are interested in learning not just Assembly but how to use it in conjunction with a high-level language (almost always C/C++);

      Background:

      --- Matt Pietrek's "Just Enough Assembly Language to Get By" - http://bytepointer.com/resources/pietrek_asm_pt1.htm

      --- Hongjiu Lu "ELF: From The Programmer's Perspective" - http://beefchunk.com/documentation/sys-programming/binary_fo...

      Books:

      --- Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (3rd Edition) by Bryant & O'Hallaron - https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspect...

      --- Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming by Daniel Kusswurm - https://www.amazon.com/Modern-X86-Assembly-Language-Programm...

      --- Low-Level Programming by Igor Zhirkov - https://www.amazon.com/Low-Level-Programming-Assembly-Execut...

      thread
    6. _d03Feb 2020
      There are some books suited for beginners and these are:

      1. https://www.amazon.com/Low-Level-Programming-Assembly-Execut...

      2. http://www.egr.unlv.edu/~ed/assembly64.pdf

      3. https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Bit-Assembly-Programming...

      The first one is somewhat written in "weird English" (Russian English?), but it is still readable. It really helped me with x64 assembly as a C programmer. I have used 2 and 3 as reference most of the time and the first was basically my "main x64 assembly book". I would also recommend getting more proficient in C programming either by studying books such as "Expert C" and the "The C Programming Language" or reading "advanced" stuff somewhere on the Internet, e.g.: http://www.pvv.org/~oma/DeepC_slides_oct2011.pdf

      The main takeaway in all this for me was learning about the call stack and the different calling conventions which gives you a clue on how recursion works under the hood.

      Also when you are done learning about "practical computer architecture", i.e. assembly language programming, learn stuff about operating systems as well:

      http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/

      Fun fact: this is not really related to assembly programming, but functions such as setjmp() and longjmp() are used for implementing exception handling.

      thread

    Related

    Cover of Object-oriented programming
    2010–2026

    Object-oriented programming

    Peter Coad
    3 recommend · 5
    Cover of Program development in Java
    2010–2026

    Program development in Java

    B. Liskov
    3 recommend · 9
    Art of Writing Efficient ProgramsFedor G. Pikus
    2022–2026

    Art of Writing Efficient Programs

    Fedor G. Pikus
    2 recommend · 4
    Cover of Discovering Modern C++
    2016–2026

    Discovering Modern C++

    Peter Gottschling
    4 recommend · 8
    Cover of Abstraction and specification in program development
    2010–2023

    Abstraction and specification in program development

    Barbara Liskov
    4 recommend · 7
    Cover of Writing efficient programs
    2010–2024

    Writing efficient programs

    Jon Louis Bentley
    9 recommend · 24
    Cover of Elements of programming
    2009–2026

    Elements of programming

    Alexander A. Stepanov
    31 recommend · 58
    Cover of A discipline of programming
    2009–2025

    A discipline of programming

    Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
    16 recommend · 51