MIPS Binary Instruction File Generator

This command-line applet allows you to create the binaries needed to test your MIPS Simulator. As of now all the commands listed in the specifications have been implemented into this application.

Instructions

If you are using a UNIX bases system (i.e. Linux or MacOS) you can simply cd into the directory of .cpp file and use the "make parser" command to build and then "bin/parser" to run it. Windows systems are a bit more tricky, but if you have installed g++ onto your computer you may also have the "make" command already available.

The application will convert assembly code into machine binary, pretty much synonmous with coding in VisUAL, except you're using MIPS instead of ARM. In case of an error, i.e. entering the wrong number of operands for a given instruction, the program will tell you the instruction at fault.

You have the choice of using a text file or console input line by line. If you wish to use a file, please pass it in as an initial argument. In this case the generated binary will have the same name as the input .txt file (obviously with .bin instead of .txt). If you want to chose the output file name, you can pass it as the second intial argument. If "prefix" is passed as a 3rd argument, the 2nd argument will be a prefix to the default file name.

If using the console, exit input by using the command "exit". You will then be able to name the .bin file.

Comments have now been implemented. Only single line comments for now... Use the '#' character.

The parser can take two intial arguments:

• Arg 1: If passed, this argument should be the name of a text file containing mips instructions (as shown below) - this will name the output file by default to the name of the input file (without the file path or .txt extension).
• Arg 2: If passed, this argument should be the name of the output file. This only needs to be used if you do not want the default naming system. If this argument ends in the '#' character, then it will become a prefix to the default name. For example, if "binaries/#" was passed as the second argument, the output file name would be the default name with the file path of "binaries/". An example is given below.

Any number can be entered using hex using the "0x" notation, but binary entry will not work so please avoid it.

As requested by Szymon, "mnop" has been added to the parser. This will create the specified number of "nop" instructions. For example, "mnop 5" would create 5 "nop" instructions and "mnop 0x10" would create 16 "nop" instructions.

Example input:

lw $t0, 4($gp)
mult $t0, $t0
lw $t1, 4($gp)
ori $t2, $zero, 3
mult $t1, $t1
add $t2, $t0, $t1
sh $t2, 0($gp)
jr $zero

This will generate the binary shown below:

8F880004
01080018
8F890004
340A0003
01290018
01095020
A78A0000
00000008

(It is left as an exercise to prove that this is the correct binary)

Example batch parsing:

Assume that a folder called "text_files/" exists in the working directory and contains all of the .txt files that you wish to compile. Also assume that a folder named "binaries/" exists in the working directory. The bash script below will compile all of the .txt files and output them into the "binaries" folder.

#!/bin/bash

FILES="text_files/*"

for F in $FILES
do
    bin/parser $F "binaries/#"
done

echo -e "Finished.\n"

Footnote

"nop" is a valid command in this parser and may be used after a jump or branch to implement a branch delay.
Sorry if there are any bugs, raise an issue or just come tell us thx.