Order the ICD (In Circuit Debugger) from either Microchip, Digikey, or
Future Electronics.
This is an in circuit debugger that exploits the fact that the '877' has
flash eprom.  You can
develop your software using MPLAB or whatever, then download it to the ICD
and run it in
real time and monitor the registers, variables, etc.  You even have one
breakpoint available.
You give up some of the 877's resources though.  Such as 1 stack level, 256
Bytes of program
memory at the top of the memory store, and the delay of downloading the
program to the part.
But, all in all, it seem fine.  I have one, but haven't gotten to use it to
the extent that I want to due
to higher priority stuff at work.  But as soon as I get caught up there,
I'll get back to it and put it
through it's paces.    BTW, the cost of thie ICD from Future is ~$130.00.


Have Fun and Regards,


Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Ballinger <MattBeck@AOL.COM>
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Saturday, July 31, 1999 12:25 AM
Subject: Tools For 16F87x.


>    I've been working with the 16F84's for a while now. I recently received
a
>16F877 from Digikey (in only 2 days, wow)! . I have PICPro16 software and
>programmer (which can program near 'bout any serial PIC including 16F877),
>but now I'm ready for in circuit debugging. Where can I find some
>soft/hardware for this? Am I out's luck for a little while? I'm not having
>any success on searching the 'net (and I don't won't to go Scenix yet). Any
>help (critical or otherwise) with this is greatly appreciated. Matt B.