Text files — files that contain only bytes that can be interpreted as ASCII characters and some control characters.
## Program to add two plus three
.text
.globl main
main:
ori $8,$0,0x2 # put two's comp. two into register 8
ori $9,$0,0x3 # put two's comp. three into register 9
addu $10,$8,$9 # add register 8 and 9, put result in 10
## End of file
Word processors usually create "binary" files and so are not suitable for creating source files. They can be forced to output a text file, but a real programming editor is much nicer.
With your program (text) editor create a file called
addup.asm.
With most text editors and Web browsers
you can copy the above
code from the Web page
and then paste into the editor.
The first "#" of the first line is in column one. The character "#" starts a comment; everything on the line from "#" to the right is ignored. Sometimes I use two in a row for emphasis, but only one is needed.
Each of the three lines following main: is a statement in assembly language that will be assembled into one machine instruction.
(Review: ) What is a machine instruction?