Jory,

You obviously got the internet address right. Thank-you for the inquiry.

Yes, ASPIC is shareware and yes I wrote it. Actually the PIC version has 
been around for 2 years, and the assembler has been available for other 
processors for many years (it's now at version 5.32) but I finally decided 
to release it because so many people were frustrated with PICALC (now 
MPALC).  ASPIC is currently available only for MS-DOS machines, (although I 
do have an OS/2 version in beta). 

My BBS has been sporaticly off line (which results in calls being routed 
directly to the fax machine) for the last couple of months as I have been 
restructuring my system.  Please try again.  If you are using an older, non 
MNP modem, or ceartan non-standard modems which support so many protocols 
that they time-out before a connection is made, all I can say is keep 
trying, they will usually get through eventually.

The files you should get are ASPIC.ZIP and DEMO.ZIP. You're welcome to 
brouse and take anything that interests you.

If you find it impossible to connect, drop me a private message on the 
Microchip BBS and I will reply with an attached file (please us this only  
as a last resort).

ASPIC can assemble Microchips CODE.  The differences between the assemblers 
is in what it does when it compiles.  Although it has a lage selection of 
assembler directives to choose from, it compiles 5 to 40 times faster.  It 
also follows many industry conventions (eg. postfix (0FEH, 10111010B) or 
prefix ($FE, %10111010) notation, makefile compatable output and error 
returns, parsable error messages for editors such as Multiedit, Brief or 
Winedit which can automatically compile and then goto any lines in any 
files with errors).
 
Some features are:
	- One assembler for 16c5X, 16c7X, 16c8X, 17c42
	- Compatable with PICSIM (MPSIM)
	- Compatable with MAKE, and with auto-error tracking editors
	- Many times faster than PICALC (MPALC)
	- Standard base notation (Intel & Motorola format)
	- CODE and FUNCTION macros
	- Auto register bank management
	- Text/data translation
	- Automaticly generates RETLW tables for text and data tables
	- Built-in version management and assembly control functions
	- user command-line switches

The BBS # is (604) 597-3479 (up to 14400).

Regards,
Don Lekei