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Editor Panel

The editor panel is the main area where RISC-V assembly language programs are written and modified.

Editor panel

This area functions as a code editor, allowing the user to directly write the instructions and data that make up the program. The editor was designed to centralize code writing and make it easier to prepare the program for the assembly and execution process.

Inside the editor, the program is usually organized into segments:

  • .text
  • .data

These segments indicate to the simulator how the program content should be interpreted.

.text Segment

Section titled “.text Segment”

The .text segment is used to write the executable instructions of the program.

Example:

.text
addi t0, zero, 5
addi t1, zero, 10
add t2, t0, t1

During the assembly process, the instructions contained in this segment are converted into machine code.

.data Segment

Section titled “.data Segment”

The .data segment is used to declare static data that will be used by the program.

Example:

.data
value: .word 10

These data can later be accessed by the instructions contained in the .text segment.

Segment Usage

Section titled “Segment Usage”

The use of .text and .data segments follows some important rules in the simulator:

  • A program may contain only the .text segment if declaring data is not necessary
  • A program should not contain only the .data segment, since there would be no executable instructions
  • If instructions are written after the .data segment, the simulator will interpret this content as part of the data section, which will result in an error displayed in the console during the assembly process
  • It is also possible to write code without explicitly declaring .text or .data, however in this case the program will not have a separation between data and instructions

Common structure example:

.data
# data declarations


.text
# program instructions

Writing Code

Section titled “Writing Code”

The simulator editor provides features that assist in writing RISC-V assembly programs.

During typing, the editor offers autocomplete for some language elements, making it easier to write code and reducing typing errors.

Among the elements supported by autocomplete are:

  • RISC-V architecture instructions
  • registers

When the user begins typing an instruction or register, the editor displays a list of suggestions that can be selected directly using the keyboard or mouse.

This feature helps to:

  • write code faster
  • avoid typing errors in instructions and registers
  • facilitate learning the language syntax