This is a philosophical post...

As I pass through the many phases of emotions while PICing (mostly elation
and depression), I tend to look at alternatives when depressed.

Like:

Other microcontroller companies - do they have better tools, third-party
support, etc.
PIC derivatives - BasicStamp, etc.
Other languages - C, Basic, etc.

So, questions begin:

Why wouldn't I go with, let's say, Motorola?
Does anybody use BasicStamps (or other high-level interpreted chips) in
commercial products?

One of the biggest reasons I went the PIC route is the massive external
support. Motorola, Intel, TI, etc. seem to have more of a "corporate"
catering. In other words, I didn't get the sense as an individual with a
dream, I would get some help from the Motorola community (could be wrong
though...). It also helped that my local Microchip rep was much more
friendly than the Motorola one.

We'll keep the language question out of this since there are volumes of
PICMail on the subject already.

-DO