we live in the year 2020 and i have this burning question: Is there still any practical use in learning X86 or 8086 programming?
I understand that the latter has it's roots all the way back in the 80's and the former was used for windows XP but what's the point in using them outside of legacy or embedded systems today?
I'm asking out of curiosity (and because my uncle ahem "encouraged" me to try it) and am likely going to open pandora's box with this post. :-[
What are its pro's and cons ( ease of use, are there people that can help etc) and can it be used for game development (are there tools for graphics and such).
otherwise i'll stick to BASIC and keep trying to hack away at 6502/Z80 assembly (of which i know a little but not a whole lot, certain registers and stuff like that)
I'd say Very Unlikely.
It IS 2020, and computers are so much more powerful, with so much RAM, and the basic parameters of more current software is so massive in comparison, that assembly is just not practical.
Just think, we'd be counting the size of source listings in miles, rather than number of lines!
As for the last para, just scrub the 'Otherwise', and check out some of the modern BASICs, like say FreeBasic, which is a full-blown Windoze system with access to just about ANY windows library/DLL type tookbox/whatever, certainly all manner of graphics, sound,whatever you fancy, and it's still just BASIC.
Geoff
I wouldn't.
Z80 - sure, we love our CPCs.
68000 - it's nice, and maybe you like Amigas or Ataris
ARM - at least it's relevant :)
x86 - do you want to code PC boot loader demos and the like? If not, no.
There is probably some very niche demand for this kind of thing, if you wanted to make money and earn a living I imagine things like C++/C#/Java etc are probably more useful. Depends really why you are learning it.
retro interest to be honest
Well I think if you want to develop games or applications for the cpc then learning z80 assembly is worthwhile but you are unlikely to make your fortune from i .