PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS–I 2-3
memory addresses. As such, an important issue that an assembler will have to sort out is
what is called the ‘forward reference problem’.
See the code below
BEGIN: MOV AX, BX
JMP AGAIN
---------------
---------------
-
-
-
AGAIN: ---------------
As the assembler reads the second line of this program, an undefined label AGAIN is
encountered. The assembler has no knowledge of it as yet, but the value of the symbol
AGAIN is needed before it can be defined. This is also called the future symbol problem
or the problem of unresolved references. This problem is solved in various ways depend-
ing on the type of the assembler.
2.1.4 | Two Pass Assemblers
There are many types of assemblers—one pass, two pass and multi-pass assemb ...