Steve,

My suggestion is to learn PIC assembler first - get Easy Pic 'n by Benson and go through it. It won't take long and you will then know what you are trying to do with the C code that you make. Coding in C is not as removed from the hardware as it is in a PC, you still need to know a lot about the chip you are working with. Hence, learn assembler with Easy Pic'n and a 16F84 - then move to C.

CCS makes a good C compiler for hobby folks. It costs $100, which is a pretty good deal considering all you get. Find them at www.ccsinfo.com . They have several packages, I would recommend the PCM package (which runs in DOS mode, but MPLAB can link to it automagically). Don't buy the PCB package until you are ready to move to the smaller cores.

Dan

You can see CCS C code for some of the Easy Pic'n examples at http://204.233.101.40/robots/pic1.html

----- Original Message -----

From: Steve George

To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 4:17 AM

Subject: Newbie question

Hi there, I've been gearing up to start learning PIC's. I really prefer to use a C compiler of some sort. Are there any available in the hobbiest price range? I see that Microchip has a trial version on their site but I couldn't find any pricing information for a full version.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Steve George