> Being a beginner is all about learning, so I believe that a
> beginner's first
> ADC should be built from discrete components. Then, when they
> move up to the
> fancy micro with all the bells & whistles they'll understand
> 'how and why'
> the device works and not simply set a few registers and feed
> information
> into a black box that smartly spits out ones and zeros.

Although I can agree with a lot of what you say (even though I am on the
f628 or rather the f877 side ;) I disagree with this one. Following your
logic a novice should build his own adder from half-adders instead of
using the add instruction. And he should build his own CPU state-machine
from EPROMs and registers. No, he should build those EPROMs and
registers from gates. But wait, gates consist of transistors. Hardly
anyone realy understands how a transistor works, so why not start with
vacuum tubes? And don't buy them, blow your own! Oh, and go find some
proper sand to make the glass from. Etc. etc.

We are at such a high level already that each level is arbitrarily.
Whichever practical level you choose to start learing and using, there
are always levels below that you can touch briefly but have to take more
or less for granted.

Wouter van Ooijen

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