View source for Assembly language

'''Assembly language''' (short form '''assembler''') is a [[programming language]] which is a human-readable form of the machine's basic [[object code]]. Rather than being in [[binary]] (expressed in whatever base), it instead uses mnemonics to indicate the [[instruction]]s (e.g. 'ADD'), along with other fields to indicate the operands for each instruction (e.g. '[[stack pointer|SP]]').

A program called an '''assembler''' converts the [[source code]] to binary object code. Assemblers usually also provide for symbolic labels for the locations at which various instructions will be stored in [[main memory]], so that [[control flow|transfer-of-control]] instructions can give their destinations symbolically. In addition to being more readable, this also means that such instructions don't need to be modified as the program is changed (changing the [[absolute address]]es at which their targets reside).

A more advanced program for writing in assembler is a '''macro assembler''', which is an assembler enhanced to provide [[macro]]s.