Storing data words in ROM

[john p]

I started a thread in the general forum about this, and concluded that what I want to do can't be done. I'd like the ability to write data into my program, to be loaded into ROM without a requirement to read it back using RETLW instructions (which of course are limited to returning 8 bits of data). There are various ways this could be implemented; I think the simplest would be to add a "DW" (data word) instruction to the assembler, as mentioned in this thread on another board:
http://www.microchip.com/forums/m791547.aspx

Better would be to allow a "data section" in the code where successive data words could be written as comma-separated values. As the thread on the Microchip board suggests, this could be useful for bitmaps or long strings.