Thanks to everyone who has responded so far to my request for
opinions as to which PIC programmer to buy.  I haven't bought one
yet, but it looks like it's come down to either the PICSTART from
Microchip, or the Parallax programmer, mainly due to cost.

I thought I had settled on the Parallax one, but I found out that there's a
Microchip seminar coming to town (Vancouver), and that I can get the
"PICSTART development system" for $79US there. The seminar costs $99US, so
that puts my total cost at about the same as the Parallax programmer.  They
tell me that the seminar is very informative (5.5 hrs), and that you get
books and _product_samples_ with the PICSTART package.  That part sounds
good to me, but, as I am a beginner, I think the seminar may be way over my
head...

I haven't heard from anyone who has used the PICSTART.  Can someone
please give be a brief comparison of the PICSTART and the Parallax
programmers?

Thanks,


 Richard Friesen                         Little Timmy took a drink,
(Richard_Friesen@mindlink.bc.ca)         But now he'll drink no more,
                                         For what he thought was H2O
                                         Was H2SO4
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--


  Richard Friesen                        Little Timmy took a drink,
 (Richard_Friesen@mindlink.bc.ca)        But now he'll drink no more,
                                         For what he thought was H2O
                                         Was H2SO4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--