Thank you all for the help. I think it is actually better to use the '877,
after all. But I found that the answer I was looking for does exist, Peter.
Check the application note AN555 on  http://www.microchip.com , entitled
'Software implementation of asynchronous serial I/O'. It allows half duplex
RS232 comms to be used with smaller PICs.

Luis.

Peter McAlpine wrote:

> Hi All,
> I am looking for something similar also!
> Due to size constraint and only needing a couple of
> ports, I want to use one of the 8 pin PIC chips... but
> I need to communicate with another device with
> RS232
>
> So any examples out there before I reinvent the
> wheel?!!
>
> Regards
> Peter Mcalpine
> petermca@ozemail.com.au - www.ozemail.com.au/~petermca
> www.wrx.org.au
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Luis" <lopesl@ELECENG.PENTECH.AC.ZA>
> To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, 22 February 2000 9:07
> Subject: RS232 routine for parallel port
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have used the 8051 before and I am trying to decide which PIC device
> > to use in a project. I know that I will need a serial port and I prefer
> > a PIC that uses EEPROM program memory (too lazy to use UV erasable
> > chips). The relatively new 16F877 seems ideal, but the old programmer
> > that I got doesn't support it. Someone told me that I could use one of
> > the older chips (perhaps the 16C84) and use a "widely available" routine
> > that would convert two pins of a parallel port for RS232 comms. I
> > searched the microchip web site but couldn't find anything.
> >
> > Can anyone please confirm this information. If it is possible to use 2
> > pins of a parallel port for RS232 where can I find the routine? And is
> > it easy to use? Thanks a lot.
> >
> > Luis.