I agree. My experience is also limited with the PIC (I've been using the '877 for about 1 month) and I could answer all those questions easily.... It was because of my previous experience with the 8051/31 (never actually built anything, just did a lot of reading), BasicStamp & PC programming in general (all flavors of basic, C, assembly & pascal) that the IDE project has come along so well. Barry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Dilatush" To: Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 6:44 PM Subject: Re: [PIC]: Programmer David, I would hardly call myself a "PIC guru" (my experience consists of one released commercial product using a PIC16C774, one under development using a PIC18C452, and a few hobby projects with PIC16F877s and PIC16F84s), but it is for precisely that reason that I have to tell you that all three sample questions you gave are trivially easy- without any reference to a PIC data sheet or the MRRF. Just my opinion--and I may be way off base, I know--but my own experience is that familiarity with a variety of microprocessors other than PICs can be just as valuable as familiarity with PICs themselves; in my own work I found that prior experience with the MC68HC11, MC6800, the 6502, CDP1802 and (reaching back a few years, here) the CP1600 allowed me to very quickly get up to speed on my first PIC product. If I were out to hire someone to develop PIC assembly language code for the application you describe, I would probably give preference to candidates with breadth and depth of experience over those with experience only with PICs. In the application you describe, I would cite control theory and user interface design as the two areas most prone to jeopardising development progress due to inexperience or lack of knowledge- not familiarity with PICs. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.