I'll add my couple of cents:

* I've never used a stamp or any BASIC-based uC, but I
will say that I don't imagine that assembler is *really*
that much harder. One of the big things MPASM has going
for it is that it really is a tiny language; there isn't
all that much to learn in the way of instructions and
everything from there on is idiom, i.e. the conventional
ways of combining instructions to do useful work. In this
regard, I'd recommend the "Easy PIC'n" book from Square
1. That book is well-focused on walking the beginner
through several examples of how to write simple programs
in MPASM.  I think that *any* programming environment
takes some getting used to; you might as well start with
the one that doesn't cost you any money and which will get
you closest to the hardware. If you do go this way, I'd
suggest taking a look at the stuff that Micro Engineering
Labs -- http://www.melabs.com/mel/home.htm -- has to offer;
among other things, they now offer a pre-made "84-on-board"
printed circuit board (called the "PICproto S1") to help
you get started with the Square 1 books. I also will highly
recommend their EPIC programmer -- the programming software
that comes with it is awesome.

In additon, MPLAB really is a darned good resource, and
one cool thing is that you can get started with it without
spending *any* money. You can download MPLAB, write and
assemble some programs, and run them on the simulator
to see how they work, trace execution, set breakpoints and
examine register contents, etc. Microchip provides extensive
documentation on all aspects of the PIC, and you can learn
a great deal about them before you decide how to spend
your money.

* I'll offer some herasy here and suggest that you also
consider at the AVR chips from Atmel (http://www.atmel.com).
These are available for reasonable cost from a couple
of distributers: http://www.pioneerstandard.com and
http://www.marshall.com. The STK200 "starter kit" is an
unbelievable value; for $49, you get not only an AVR chip
with 8KB of program memory (you get the 40-pin AT90S8515
chip) but also the assembler, a CD with full documentation,
and a PC programming cable and a development/programming
board fully decked out with switches and lights so
that you can fully learn to program the chip without
ever having to touch a soldering iron, and all the chip
signals brought out to headers so that you can solder
up experiments to your heart's content. Atmel also has
a simulator similar to the one in MPLAB, it is part
of the "AVR Studio"... download the version 2.0 from
Atmel's website.  You can purchase the STK200 online at
http://www.marshall.com/dynamic/pdpage?m=atm&p=ATSTK200-
and find out more about it and some related products
at http://www.kanda-systems.com/ I'm not aware of a starting
kit of equivalent value for any other microcontroller,
the PIC or the Basic Stamp included.  With the AVR,
you'll probably start out with assembler as well (get
the free IAR assembler, though, and chuck Atmel's), but
there are other choices as well; check out the "third
party" link page off Atmel's AVR page.

That being said, the primary downside of the AVR is that
this is the best electronics-related mailing list in the
world, and it's about PICs, not AVRs :-) There are
AVR mailing lists, but they are less active.

* Another alternative choice to consider is an old,
clunker of a PC. Peter Anderson's page has been
mentioned a couple of times already, but I'll mention it
again because it deserves it: http://www.phanderson.com/
Mr (Dr?) Anderson has written, with his students,
two books entitled "Use of a PC Printer Port for Control
and Data Acquisition" (Volume 1 and Volume 2). These
books are fascinating and take you through several
experiments that you can do with the parallel port of
a PC (given all the stuff he has you hook up, it isn't
recommended that you use your good PC... better to
get an old one from Goodwill or some place like that...
Computer Geeks -- http://www.compgeeks.com -- usually has
old 80486-based PCs for about $50.)  One thing about
Anderson's approach is that he has you do the stuff in
the C programming language. You'll probably wind up
getting sidetracked on learning C before you can get
too far, but that would be time well spent: C is as
close as you will ever come to a universal programming
language, I am not aware of *any* microcontroller or
microprocessor architecture for which there is not
a C compiler available. Anderson's programs are tested
with a different compiler, but I would be quite surprised
if they wouldn't generally work with the Pacific C
Compiler, available free for educational use from
Hi-Tech Software  -- http://www.htsoft.com -- Pacific
C being available for free is yet another fantastic
value, because it really is a full professional-quality
compiler; for commercial use it costs $175.

I imagine that you're completely confused by now,
being bombarded with advice like this. I'm sure that
you'll straighten it all out eventually, but, given
your interest, I'd also say that the only real
mistake you can make is to not start with *something*.
Just about anything you try will be one more step
down the road to a lifetime of learning and fun.

Damn, I did it again. Three cents worth.

--Bob

--
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Bob Drzyzgula                             It's not a problem
bob@drzyzgula.org                until something bad happens
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