Post #3205403

One downside of Chapter 3 from CS:APP is that it’s based on AMD64 assembly. I know it’s the best ISA for hands-on experience and thus suitable for labs, but the book wastes so many pages on explaining AMD64’s special cases. For example, any operation that touches lower 32-bit (l) of a register sets upper 32-bits to zeros, and the readers have to keep that on mind while reading the book. My personal preference would be RISC-V, but it wouldn’t be practical for a course that targets not only CS/CE students but also students from other faculties who wants to take an introductory CS course.