Hello design committeee - take care that you don't end up designing both
COBOL and ANSI C/C++ in a single package!

I think there are differents 'needs' for beginners/starts products. BTW
for most of these suitable products probably already exists. The main
drivers for the different needs are:
- cost associated with the users time (aka 'professionalism')
- electronics knowledge and/or desire to do electronics work
- just wanting to program some uC versus wanting to develop for all PICs
(or even wider)

A professional with little electronics knowledge should start with a
demo board. Next probably a good programmer with support for lots of
PICs. Think PS+, Promate, ICDs, maybe Warp (13?) programmer. This is not
the group you should aim at.

A hobbyist (less money to spare) can take an f877 with bootloader (but
where to get a programmed f877, or where to get an f877 at all?), or a
serial port powered HVP programmer, or a parallel port HVP programmer
with external power (both will work with a 16x84) or parallel port LVP
programmer (sorry, not for x84's).

I think most PCs are likely to have at least a serial port, so that
would be my bet. As a fallback make sure that the programmer works with
an off-the-shelve USB->serial converter. I think it is a little too
early to go for USB only. Personally I would not put my money on the
future serial ports prviding suitable voltages for 'direct' HVP
programming, so supply the HVP volatage externally.

Now I will switch to more important work, like porting my Wisp628
programmer PC software to Python...

Wouter van Ooijen

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http://www.voti.nl
PICmicro chips, programmers, consulting

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