The difference between mediocre and star programmers is that star programmers understand assembly language, whether or not they use it on a daily basis. Programming from the Ground Up gives programmers the edge they need to be successful.

Assembly language is the language of the computer itself. To be a programmer without ever learning assembly language is like being a professional race car driver without understanding how your carburetor works. To be a truly successful programmer, you have to understand exactly what the computer sees when it is running a program. Nothing short of learning assembly language will do that for you. Assembly language is often seen as a black art among today's programmers - with those knowing this art being more productive, more knowledgeable, and better paid, even if they primarily work in other languages.

Programming from the Ground Up uses Linux assembly language to take you a step at a time through these concepts:

• How the processor views memory
• How the processor operates
• How programs interact with the operating system
• How computers represent data internally
• How to do low-level and high-level optimization