Declaring more than one SPIM array causes a syntax error

Question

Below is the beginning of a chunk of SPIM code:

    .data
a:  .space  20
b:  .space  20

    .text
set_all:
    sw $ra,0($sp)
    li $t0,0
    li $t1,10
............

Unfortunately, the second array I declare ('b') causes the SPIM interpreter to spit out:

spim: (parser) syntax error on line 3
of file spim.out      b:    .space  20
                        ^

Similar code works when I only have one array -- it seems to be the second that screws it up. I've prodded at it but can't figure out what it is about that statement that makes it break. Any thoughts? Thanks for any insight.

Answer 1

/facepalm

After poking around a bit more, I remembered that 'b' is a reserved word in SPIM. It stands for 'branch'. Hoo boy.