### 3.2 Compiling ¶

Three simulators of the MIX computer, called `mixvm`, `gmixvm` and `mixguile`, are included in the MDK tools. They are able to run binary files containing MIX instructions written in their binary representation. You can translate MIXAL source files into this binary form using `mixasm`, the MIXAL assembler. So, in order to compile the `hello.mixal` file, you can type the following command at your shell prompt:

    mixasm hello RET

If the source file contains no errors, this will produce a binary file called `hello.mix` which can be loaded and run by the MIX virtual machine. Unless the `mixasm` option `-O` is provided, the assembler will include debug information in the executable file (for a complete description of all the compilation options, see `mixasm`, the MIXAL assembler). Now, your are ready to run your first MIX program, as described in the following section.