A good answer might be:

Text files---files of bytes that can be interpreted as ASCII characters.

Two plus Three

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 following code from the Web page and then paste into the editor).

## 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

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: corresponds to one machine instruction.

QUESTION 5:

(Review: ) What is a machine instruction?