is the Hydra book a good source for learning assembler?

b.p.m.

Hi everyone,
i'm thinking of purchasing the Hydra book hoping it would be a
good source for learning assembler. but, i checked out the sample
chapters and there wasn't one line of code. also i don't own a
Hydra board and i was wondering if this is a major problem.
i have a Demo board and i'm hoping most of the differences would
amount to changing pin assignments (i understand that anything
to do with the HAM wouldn't be helpful... at least on the surface).
i need to get into assembler with more depth than the two tutorials
available on the forum (both are good; but they just cover the
basics). i also thinking of building my own game system based on
the Propeller. i found a game console 'shell' with controllers at a
church bazaar for a couple bucks and it came to me that this
would make a great Prop project.
anyways, if anyone has read the Hydra book and can advise me
that would be great.
thanks ahead of time.

blake

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"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
Bart Simpson

kuroneko

Not sure what your requirements re: learning assembler are, but personally I wouldn't buy the book if I didn't have a Hydra (incidentally I bought the Hydra GDK). I learned PASM from the propeller data sheet (while waiting for the GDK). Also, I didn't look at the tutorials, so when you say cover only the basic's, what more do you need?

b.p.m.

i want to learn game programming; ie. animated graphics, sound effects generation,
code optimization. for example indirect addressing isn't covered in the tutorials because Pasm doesn't support it directly; you have to use selfmodifying code. i had to inquire on the forum for that one. basicly i don't want to reinvent the wheel as they say, or in this case a dozen different wheels. so, is the Hydra book good for this kind of thing even if you don't own a Hydra board?

blake

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"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
Bart Simpson

kuroneko

b.p.m. said...
i want to learn game programming; ie. animated graphics, sound effects generation, code optimization. ... So, is the Hydra book good for this kind of thing even if you don't own a Hydra board?

Difficult question. From the looks of it the book comes with a CD and a prop chip these days. There is certainly lots of stuff in it about getting into game programming (i.e. first steps) with lots of examples. So that would justify a positive answer. However, the problem I see here is that the example code is tailored for the Hydra. I don't know your expertise wrt modifying stuff to get it to run on the demo board. So it might be a bit of a downer when you can't use (assuming you want to) the examples out-of-the-box. If that doesn't scare you off then I'd say go for it.

Post Edited (kuroneko) : 6/13/2009 6:21:03 AM GMT

RossH

Hi b.p.m.

I agree with kuroneko. I own a hydra, and I really think it is a great platform for exploring both the propeller and games programming. But I was already very familiar with assembly language before I started. I wouldn't really recommend the hydra book (with or without the hydra) as an introductory book on programming - it isn't. But it is a good introductory book on games programming, so if your goal is to design your own games platform, then understanding the hydra in detail would give you a great start in designing your own games platform.

Ross.

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Catalina - a FREE C compiler for the Propeller - see Catalina

localroger

The Hydra book is not a good source for learning PASM, as it deliberately avoids PASM in order to make getting into its material easier for beginners.

This is a really excellent start though:

http://forums.parallax.com/forums/attach.aspx?a=16161