Summary:

What I feel is needed is a free code development tool somewhere
between assembler and C, but with the paralellism of an HDL, the graphical
abstraction of flowcharting, and the power of an RTOS integrated into the
language.

Full Text:

I've heard quite a bit about this on the piclist lately.  In one corner we
have the developers using Hitech C, looks like a good development tool for
someone who wants a high-level abstraction to the pic hardware, lots of
library support, and pretty tightly generated code along with an
integrated IDE.  Pretty pricey though at $800-$1600.

In the other, those using MPASM along with its decent macro capabilities
to generate hand-optimized code.  Cost $0.  Difficult to maintain and
share code, because different authors have entirely different techniques
and calling conventions.

Thirdly, there are other requirements beyond just wanting to write
procedural code, we want to do multi-tasking, and execute very time
sensitive procedures, such as software UART etc.  Some of these realtime
requirements are beyond the abilities of existing RTOS, simply because the
heartbeat of an RTOS is the timer interrupt . . . some of these tasks
_require_ timing in software, a technique considered a great evil on a
general purpose computer but quite acceptable on a microcontroller.
Software timing with multiple tasks is difficult to construct and
especially to change/maintain.

Flowcharting is a very powerful technique, I have used it many times to
describe code that otherwise would of eluded me and ended up being badly
written and buggy.  However, flowcharting is appropriate only for
procedural implementations.  Note the differences between flowcharts and
Algorithmic State Notation, which is relatively similar.

A Hardware Description Language, while a powerful tool, is not really
appropriate either because a single PIC doesn't posess the degree of
parallelism that an HDL assumes.

What I feel is needed is a free code development tool somewhere between
assembler and C, but with paralellism of an HDL, the graphical
abstraction of flowcharting, and the power of an RTOS integrated into the
language.

Even with microchip introducing the 18xxx series which is supposed to
be "C" friendly, the 12xxx & 16xxx architecture will continue to be
inexpensive and desirable for many applications.

My desire is to gather a list of requirements, suggestions and volunteers
from the PIC community, for the previously mentioned tool/language and
develop it as a GNU style Freeware.

If interested in participation, please email me at: jamil@scottibox.com

I will soon be hosting a web page about the above tool, if there is
sufficient interest.