In the search for an authentic understanding of how programs work, ‘The Art of 64-bit Assembly’, according to nostarch.com, offers an intensive assembly course for experienced assembly developers. The book unveils the mysteries of low-level program execution, focusing on generating assembly code for 64-bit Windows.
Each chapter disassembles a concept in high-level languages like C++, Python, or Rust and rebuilds it step-by-step in MASM, removing the runtime layer and making each decision visible and explicit.
What you will build by following the book includes:
- Object-oriented programs in MASM, including vtables, dispatch methods, and inheritance, built from scratch;
- Windows Structured Exception Handling (SEH) at the instruction level;
- Thunks, closures, and iterators that act as higher-order functions;
- Coroutines, generators, and fibers without the need for high-level language code;
- Concurrent programs with real synchronization primitives, directly from assembly;
- Unicode string handling at the level where most code goes wrong;
- Domain-specific macro languages within MASM, built from first principles.
For those who already have assembly knowledge and want to avoid blind faith in complicated parts of the code, ‘The Art of 64-bit Assembly’ is the recommended book. Download Chapter 1: ‘Advanced Macros’ for a preview of the content covered in the book, available from the publisher’s website.