On 5 Mar 99, 7:34  Charles LaForge wrote:

> I for one  (and I'm quite sure I'm not the only one) am very satisfied
> with the CCS product.  CCS gave me a break whenI was in college and
> offered alot of help and advice.

I second that.  I started (high level language) PIC programming with
Melabs PicBasic compiler, in a little project done for my employer.
But after comparing Melabs upgrade policy with CCSs, I decided to
go with CCS and to buy CCS C, for my personal toolset, and so far
I am quite satisfied with my decision. Both products (Melabs
Picbasic, Stamp I compatible, and CCS 14bit core compiler) have
similar price and feature sets (CCS C is faster, PicBasic has better
ASM integration).  But Melabs upgrade policy _really_ stinks,
when looked at from a German customers point of view. While
customers located in the US may get upgrades almost for free ($10
plus inexpensive local shipment), customers from overseas pay a
fortune for each and every upgrade/bugfix. CCS, on the other hand,
offers free upgrades to current versions via the internet for 30 days
after the buy, and sell continous access to actual versions for a
year, for another $99.

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