Rating: 
Summary: Uncle Barry to the rescue!
Review: Are you that special kind of Computer Programmer? You know the kind who does not have a mentality like, "As long as my program runs, who cares how I got there." Are you the kind of person who wants you 'application development skills' to be the best that they can be? Would you like to develop tight, small code that runs smoking fast? Well, Barry Kauler's book, "Windows Assembly Language and Systems Programming" is a good step in that direction. Most people don't realize that the "C" language is actually a form of 'glorified BASIC.' Remeber how slow that crap used to run? Guess what? It still does. Mr. Kauler provides his evidence in an over-kill fashion, he is so knowledgeable in most all aspects of PC technology, he wants to make sure that you do to. If you read Mr. Kauler's book you may say, "I already knew that," keep reading, I bet you'll learn something new. In my personal opinion, I feel that when Computer Software that is developed at the system level, "YOU OWN THE PROCESSOR." Develop any other way and, "THE PROCESSOR OWNS YOU." Which would you rather be? I highly recommend Mr. Kauler's book, not so much because he did not include a bunch of killer examples on his companion disk, but beacuse he opens the door for you to do it.
Rating:
Summary: Uncle Barry to the rescue!
Review: Are you that special kind of Computer Programmer? You know the kind who does not have a mentality like, "As long as my program runs, who cares how I got there." Are you the kind of person who wants you 'application development skills' to be the best that they can be? Would you like to develop tight, small code that runs smoking fast? Well, Barry Kauler's book, "Windows Assembly Language and Systems Programming" is a good step in that direction. Most people don't realize that the "C" language is actually a form of 'glorified BASIC.' Remeber how slow that crap used to run? Guess what? It still does. Mr. Kauler provides his evidence in an over-kill fashion, he is so knowledgeable in most all aspects of PC technology, he wants to make sure that you do to. If you read Mr. Kauler's book you may say, "I already knew that," keep reading, I bet you'll learn something new. In my personal opinion, I feel that when Computer Software that is developed at the system level, "YOU OWN THE PROCESSOR." Develop any other way and, "THE PROCESSOR OWNS YOU." Which would you rather be? I highly recommend Mr. Kauler's book, not so much because he did not include a bunch of killer examples on his companion disk, but beacuse he opens the door for you to do it.
Rating: 
Summary: Throwback to Windows 3.1
Review: Assembly language is important - you really need it when
a) your compiler is producing instructions different to those you intended with your higher-level language
b) debugging system-level code
c) disassembling some binary file that has no source code
d) presented with a crash address alone.
e) You might even need to write a little assembly when what you are doing simply cannot be written in a higher level language.
There are some excellent books to help learn assembly, and chapters in books and articles by the likes of Pietrek and Robbins.Kauler is different. He believes you should write your Windows GUI programs straight in assembler - dialogs, menus, windows and all. He thinks this is a good way to write Windows programs. Anybody who wants to follow his advice does not need this book, he needs to learn about modern tools. Modern compilers are really good, and it is ludicrous to suggest replacing their work with yours. Having undermined the central premise of this book, it is worth commenting on the content. Firstly, it is very heavy going, and somehow clunky. I don't know if it is the font, page layout, or simply trying to cover too much too quickly, but I had to read each paragraph a few times to understand what was being said here. The book has clearly been rehashed from previous Kauler literature, even leaving in the same screen shots from 1992! Several chapters have rambling overviews of Windows architecture or the boot up process, and quite frankly, other books cover this far better. What this stuff has to do with assembly is not explained. He also seems to be stuck in a time warp, by writing most of his code in 16-bit assembly. There was a time, when I was still young, when you had no choice - 32-bit Windows was still a pipedream. But already for several years this has been obsolete, and the only need to know it is when poking around in the 16-bit underworld of 95, but heaven forbid actually programming in it! I have to admit that there are some gems here - Kauler has prised open some of the cracks in the Win95 OS, and revealed some amazing tricks. Among them are using DOS interrupts to gain access to low-level services and using CallGates to run Ring0 code from Ring3. However, even this gem is written cock-eyed, with the main program in 16-bit code, and the CallGate callback in 32-bits! Does he want nobody to understand him? And all this to expose the Win9x OS! It still exists, but is becoming more and more obsolete. XP Home is already upon us, and I doubt any home PCs will be sold with the 9x family installed ever again. The kind of people who want to dig into the OS migrated to NT years ago, while Kauler is still stuck in the 9x days, blinking in denial as he emerges from a 16-bit slumber. Not for me such stuff. Avoid this book, unless you are a real 9x underworld junkie, think in assembly, have more that just a dash of Windows 3.1 nostalgia, and yearn for the good old days of 16-bit programming.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential reading, but not perfect
Review: Being one of the very few books on this topic, this book is essential for anyone who's interested. Although there is a chapter about the basics of assembly language, I think the reader must have some basic assembly skills before starting with this book. I personally knew DOS assembly and wanted to learn Windows assembly. This book formed a GREAT introduction. The only drawbacks I find are: - the comparison Win16 <-> Win32 is made, I'd rather see the comparison Win9x <-> Winnt; - the author doesn't always explain what he promised to explain. E.g. A chapter about Ring0 Code is about an example of *getting* ring0 from ring3; - the source code is messy, and doesn't always compile. But still, it's a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Referance, Bad Learning Tool
Review: For a CS student, the book starts fairly nice and at an understandable level and then switches to being so over-your-head that you have to read the paragraphs three or more times to get any sort of understanding from it. Mr. Kauler does make a good point for all you performance freaks out there that truly applications can only be achieved by writing low-level code. I think that he just needs to do a better job in explaining the code and should perhaps look at it more from a student's perspective, rather than a programmer's. The book is a decent reference for looking up particular commands and such.
Rating: 
Summary: poor
Review: Fragmented and outdated. Like an old compiler, claim to do all but in fact falling far behind promise.
Rating:
Summary: Files on the included disk DO NOT assemble.
Review: Good book for the programmer who uses assembly and would like to cross over from DOS to Windows, however, the constant confusion between MASM and TASM with insufficient clarification and then writing a program using Borland's C++ and telling the user to use Microsoft's NMAKE.EXE instead of Borland's MAKE.EXE because Borland's is different without showing why is a little absurb. I have had TASM 4.0 for several years and enjoyed writing DOS assembly programs, but I do not wish to go out and buy MASM just to satisfy the author. In addition, having to buy anything else to supplement a book when you already have good programs should not be necessary.
Rating:
Summary: Highly disappointing
Review: His first edition on 16-bit was very well written and covered nearly every subject on writing Windows programming in assembler. His second edition is just a rehash of the first edition with a few 32-bit tidbits tossed in among code that will not compile in either TASM or MASM. Granted, it's the only book available on this subject, so you might was well buy it, but clearly the author didn't spend much time on this edition.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, for people who have a good grasp of assembly
Review: I actual give this book a 9 because you really do not have a choice, this is the only book out there that explains coding at this level. At least in this version of the book the author tries to make things work in just masm or tasm. Strangely in his last book you would need parts of 3 or 4 different programming languages to compile the example code. In this edition he rarely falls into that trap. The explaintion of the code are excellent, he explains some tricks to use 16 and 32 bit code in one program. He also has a small but working windows program written entirely in assembly (not console based, true windows) and documents all parts of it. There is no other book out there on the market that explains windows at this level. A must for those who like to explore the depths of windows programing.
Rating:
Summary: Skims the Surface
Review: I have to admit I learned alot from this book. I think it could have been written a little "smoother". I agree with one reader when he says the first two chapters could have been put to better use. If you use Microsofts Masm assembler, then you may be somewhat lost. I know of at least two instances where he refers you to another section to configure your programs in Masm, but, there is no reference to Masm in these sections. The appendices are excellent. I must admit this is the only book of its kind I have been able to find but in most areas he just skims the surface. He doesn't even tell you the proper way to retrieve a key stroke using Windows routines. In all honesty, "Its better than Nothing"..! I know more now than I did...
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