> I know that higher level languages such as "C" exist, and can help
> with time to market, but as many of you have discovered, RAM space
> and speed are more friendly to low level assembly.

C started out as little more than a structured assembler. For every
Microchip PIC instruction there is a C statement and a one for one
relationship between the C generated code and the assembler. There
is no need for any penalty to be paid for using C. C at its
basic level offers the advantages of the pseudo-asm instructions
in a format that is similar to algorithmic languages. Well written C
like well written assembler produces tight effective application
code.

Walter Banks