Thread: Have you ever programmed for MIPS?

I'm doing it to university and it is a pain. I hate assembly, anyone has a funny history or fact about coding in it? By the way if you have some source examples they will be very welcome cause I still kinda lost

Here is somthing I did for school this weekend.

Code:

    .data
nameArray: .asciiz "Troy Curless"

success: .asciiz "Sucess"

failure: .asciiz "Failure"

     .text
     .ent main
main:
     subu $sp,$sp,36    #Activation record 12 + 24.
     sw $fp,36($sp)     #Save the frame pointer on the stack for the main function.
     addu $fp,$sp,36
     la $s0,nameArray   #address of nameArray in $a0 to pass to printchar:
     la $s1,success     #Success message
     la $s2,failure     #Failed message

     add $a0,$s0,$zero
     jal printchar      #call printchar function
     add $a0,$s1,$zero  #prep for function call
     addi $ra,$ra,12    #adjust return register
     beq $v0,$zero,fail #branch to print failure if 0 failure
     jal printchar         #print success
fail:
     add  $a0,$s2,$zero   #else prep load failure into arg register
     jal printchar      #call printchar(failure)
     slt $v1,$zero,$v0  #set on successful print
     j exit
.end main

printchar:
     sw $ra,-12($fp)

     sw $s0,0($fp)
     sw $s1,-4($fp)
     sw $s2,-8($fp)

     li $v0,4
     syscall
     li $v0,1
     lw $s0,0($fp)
     lw $s1,-4($fp)
     lw $s2,-8($fp)

     # Now do housekeeping for the main function.
     lw $ra,-12($fp)    #Load the old return address from the stack
     jr $ra             #Return to caller.
.end printchar

exit:

In fact I need to discover how to save an int into a specific memory position. I know google ive fast searched it but I couldnt find, my C project is killing me, I have few time for mips

Originally Posted by Govtcheez

I've got my old MIPs textbook I could sell you cheap, if you don't mind waiting a week for me to get it from my parents' house (and if I can find it). It's a hell of a book

I think this is it
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...365094-4120670

I got it free from a friend but I'm too occupied to read it right now, so I wonder if I can make the project just by reading some code examples.

Originally Posted by Salem

> I hate assembly, anyone has a funny history or fact about coding in it?
Well write the silly thing in C then.
Then do "gcc -S" on it to get the assembler and tweak it to match what you want to do.

I wish I could, but I need to learn this stuff

lol if anyone looked at my code they would have seen its a little buggy, luckily I fixed it before turning it in.

First, the book that Govt was offering is a great book, I used it in my Comp Arch. class and it is great if you want to learn how computers work on a level just above logic gates.

Second, how can you dislike mips, compared to x86 asm its wonderful

What's wrong with x86?

Originally Posted by Bubba

What's wrong with x86?

All, X86 asm is a hell, instructions are messud up, you cant freely use the registers, some instructions doesnt work on some registers... Common problems of a CISC machine.