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Should be "get assembler". Assembly or assembling is the process of using an assembler to assemble assembler code, which is actually mnemonics.

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Assembly language or assembly code is the most typical usage. There's nothing wrong with calling it assembler code either, but it's less common.

Source: I started writing assembly code in 1968, over the years coding for Sigma 5/7, PDP-10, TI 9900, 6502, 8080, Z80, 8086, 68000, x86, and ARM. I occasionally saw it called assembler language, but less often than assembly language.

Update: As I think about it, there is a bit more nuance to the terminology that I remembered at first. While I do recall "assembler language" and "assembler code" as being infrequently used, "assembler" by itself has often been a common usage:

"I'm writing this in assembly code."

"I'm writing this in assembler."

Those were used fairly interchangeably, even by someone like me to whom "assembler code" sounded a bit off.

So you're definitely not wrong to call it "assembler". Where you're going wrong is claiming that "assembly code" is incorrect.

Pick up any book from the '80's on learning assembler and you'll be hard pressed to find "assembly" anywhere, especially for MOS 6502, Z80 or MC68000.

My goodness, if you really insist on arguing this point, here are a few books for you.

6502:

https://www.amazon.com/Assembly-Language-Programming-Lance-L...

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/documentation/programming/6502assembly/6502%20Assembly%20Language%20Programming.pdf

Z80:

http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/zilog/z80/Z80%20Assembly...

https://archive.org/details/Zilog_Z80_assembly_language_prog...

68000:

http://dev-docs.atariforge.org/files/Asm_Lang_Prog_68K_Famil...

https://www.amazon.com/68000-Family-Assembly-Language-Progra...

Donald Knuth calls it 'assembly' in The Art of Computer Programming, which he started to write in the early 1960s.

When I was coding Z80 in the late 80s/early 90s (on the Amstrad CPC) it was always either "assembly language" or "assembler".

It's definitely also assembly, possibly even as the primary spelling - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language

No, that's just lame (and Wikipedia isn't always right). Ask any scene coder and they'll tell you they're coding in assembler, not "assembly".

Why are scene coders more correct than other coders.

If Agner Fog has no problem calling it 'assembly'[0], then neither do I.

0: http://agner.org/optimize/

Why are scene coders more correct than other coders.

Because they've written more applications in assembler than anyone else in the history of computing. Look at Aminet, and csdb.dk, and that's just Amiga and C=64, I haven't even included the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and PC.

> Because they've written more applications in assembler than anyone else in the history of computing.

Absolute unbridled nonsense.

Have you considered asking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_(demoparty) to rename itself, then?

They've been using that name since 1992, and if those guys aren't "scene coders" then I've never seen one.

I never went back in the day, but pretty sure I didn't primarily interpret it as "ooh, a congregation of people".

It shouldn't. 'Assembly' is the textual code, 'assembler' is the tool used to convert the text to machine code. I don't think the name is worth an argument, but your suggestion is no more correct than that is already in the title.

Considering I spent my youth writing assembler code, I find it pretty upsetting someone from the internet lecturing me on what I was deeply involved with is called. I think I know what I was writing.

I don't think anybody is claiming it's not called assembler, just that it's also / mostly called assembly. fwiw I wrote some [machine code via mnemonics] in the '80s (admittedly not lots) and assembly sounds more normal to me.

It's a dangerous business, going onto the internet. You step into a site, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing what you might hear.

I like to call it machine code.

To me, machine code would mean the output of the assembler. Maybe the terminology isn't tied down that well though.

But it isn't. Machine code is for computers, assembly for humans.

Although assembly is machine code represented with mnemonics, they're not the same: assemblers take assembly and produce machine code.

> Assembly or assembling is the process of using an assembler to assemble assembler code

Assembly is also the result of something that was assembled.

No, those are called objects or object files. ;)

(which is why the tool to handle them is called objdump)

Tell that to your National Object File.

I'm talking general English. What happens when you assembly a group of people? You have an assembly. The same can be said for other objects.

This should read:

> What happens when you assemble a group of people? You have an assembly. The same can be said for other objects.

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