skeleton program

I have found it convenient to have known-good code on file. Here's a very simple program that can serve as a starting place for your work (click for text version):

; skeleton assembly-language program  SKEL.ASM
; for use with NASM and Dandamudi macros
;
; References:
;   NASM at http://nasm.sourcegorge.net
;   macros at http://www.scs.carleton.ca/~sivarama
;     (see ASM book on this site)
;
; to assemble on Linux:
;
;    nasm -f elf skel.asm
;    ld -s -o skel skel.o io.o
;
; (files io.mac and io.o are assumed available)
;
; to run:
;
;    ./skel
;
;  input:  any
; output:  messages on screen
;
%include "io.mac"

.DATA
; -------------
; initialized data
;
; ascii 10 and 9 produce whitespace 
; with CR and HT
;
strBegin  db  10, 9, 'Skeleton program ---', 10, 0
strPrompt db  10, 9, 'Press a key: ', 0
strEnd    db  10, 9, 'Program ending.', 10, 10, 0

.UDATA
; -------------
; uninitialized data
;
byteResponse  resb 1

.CODE
    .STARTUP

    PutStr strBegin         ; welcome message
    PutStr strPrompt        ; ask user for response

    GetCh [byteResponse]    ; get response
                            ; but don't do anything with it
                            
    PutStr strEnd           ; end program
    .EXIT