title: Are .text and .data required in ARM Assembly?
body: <p>Most ARM assembly programs I come across use the .data and .text section directives. However, I noticed two things:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Many times the assembly code generated by the GCC compiler itself will only use the .text directive, grouping the variables somewhere in the code by without the .data directive.</p></li>
  <li><p>Even if I don't use the .text section my programs still compile and run fine. </p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>My question:</strong> are those directives required? If yes, why? If yes, how come my programs still works without them?</p>