Computer:  old computer running DOS-- even old 8086 compaq
    portable running off 2 floppies with no hard drive will actually work.
    About 10 floppies.   Cost: $150 for new power supply.  Copy of Dos
    Edit.com--free.

$150 for a new power supply?!!!  You're kidding, right?  I mean, Today's
paper has an ad for a NEW 400MHz K6-2 system (no memory, no drives, no
monitor, but including sound, video, ethernet) fo $199.  You can get brand
new computer cases WITH power supply for no more than HALF of that price.
There are quite a LOT of used 386sx and 486 "all-in-one" type machines on
the market these days, complete with small hard drive, in the "less than
$50" range.  (The most tempting deal I saw recently was for some old MACs.
$20 for a Mac LC3 (68030 based), and $5 for small B&W mac monitor.
http://www.refurbmadness.com/ (unfortunately, unless you have one of these
places locally (and you might), postage can up the price a lot.)  A MAC
isn't a good choice for PIC programming, though.)

BillW