I've been actively programming with assembly but now I'm losing motivation. My productivity is simply ridiculously low compared to what others seem to have with high level languages.
I know I should start using high level languages but I always return to assembly for some reason. How could I get used to higher level languages and finally become productive? I'd really want to master at least one.
Maybe start with C. C is known for being "closer to the hardware" than other higher level languages, so this would be like dipping your toe in the water to get used to it without jumping in.
Edit:
Another point to note, is that C also allows In-line assembly. So that you can still code in assembly only were it is required.
Pick a language and then follow the 11 step plan.
Overall, a high level language will provide you with a lot of productivity simply because it provides such a high level of abstraction. This allows you to leverage the work of others in a more efficient manner than you're likely to find in the lower level languages.
The downside of this is that you apparently sacrifice runtime performance to gain developer productivity (see Ruby as an example). However, in these days of extremely powerful machines that argument is almost entirely invalid. I'll allow certain extreme edge cases (high frequency trading algorithms, massively parallel supercomputing architectures etc) to remain since they don't represent the usual applications that developers encounter.
Having the low-level language knowledge will be extremely helpful to you in the high-level language domain because you'll be much more careful about selecting the appropriate storage mechanism for the data you'll be working with. Knowing your hardware is an important requirement for developers.
I suggest you give Ruby a shot. It is one of the popular languages, that has gotten the furthest away from the machine. I find it highly enjoyable and the book I linked proved a very good introduction.
High level languages are often frowned upon and some people claim, you should start with low level languages and work your way up.
I am quite convinced, you should do this the other way round. Low level languages teach you how computers work. They teach you to provide solutions expressed in a way they actually work in the computer.
High level languages deal with far more abstract concepts, trying to be closer to human thought patterns. Thus they allow you to focus on modelling a given problem and creating simple, elegant solutions.
A problem is defined in terms of constraints and abstracting those away, that are given by the hardware results in reducing the problem to its actual essence.
I am saying this, because when I first started with higher languages, it took me a while to wrap my head around many popular concepts. I tried to understand them in terms of what I had learnt before. But when I looked at them from the opposite side, they seemed quite natural. So if you start with a high language, try not to classify everything you learn in terms of what you know. Consider this a fresh start.
At some point, you will realize, that you need to get beneath the present level of abstraction (usually because you lack control or speed or both). This is the right place to use the knowledge you have from low level languages.
Comparing your productivity on assembly versus a higher level language is like comparing a roller and a corner paintbrush. They are very different purposes. Assembly should not typically be used whenever a higher language is available.
Not sure what your main draw to assembly is, but I know the lower the language the more I dislike it because you have to repeat more mundane coding. With a higher level language you can actually focus on solving the problem at hand instead of spending your time adding values together. I would suggest you start learning something like Python, Ruby or Java and even if it seems strange at first go ahead and push through. I think once you get a better understanding of what you can do in a higher level language your desire for assembly will stop.
I have picked up a few Higher level languages in the last few years and found it slightly irritating initially because things were very complicated and difficult to read, since I was used to sequential code that was very much like a mathematical proof. After continually pushing myself things have clicked and the concepts which make higher level languages now seem intuitive and things have become very easy to understand. I strongly recommend the tutorials for java provided by Oracle as they dont ask you to trust them on unsupported concepts (ie. introducing a concept whilst talking about another and saying "don't worry about that til later") for the most part they restrict the scope of things. That being said accepting things on faith is annoying but critical for many types of learning.
I would recommend Ruby for a few reasons. First, it's my Weapon of Choice, so I'm completely biased towards Ruby as a language. Second, Ruby has very consistent syntax, it was designed according to "the principle of least surprise". I have found it, by and large, to be free of surprises. Third, you can write procedural, step by step code in Ruby if you want to, and gradually get comfortable working in different ways. I think this is one of the strongest selling points of Ruby: it's a very deep language with a very shallow learning curve.
First learn a language like C or C++ that will really help you in learning some high level language and work as a bridge between assembly and language like C# If you are interested in Microsoft technology
