I have been on this list for 7 years and have almost gotten
started programming PIC's a couple of times.  As a computer user who
happens to be blind, I started looking at PIC's just about the time
all the development software went from DOS to Windows so I wasn't sure
exactly what I was going to do to make it all work best.

        I use UNIX in my job and I got in to Linux at around that
time.  I had bought a couple of PIC programmers and some PIC's, but
the development software, programmer drivers, and even some of the
documentation presented one headache after another so I kept
procrastinating which is something I plan to quit doing first thing
tomorrow.

        Now, I have a Linux system that appears to support at least
one of the programmers I have well enough to program most of the
PIC's on hand so now, I am just writing a program, getting ready to
burn it in to a 16F84, possibly a 16f84A.  I'll have to get out the
box and find out what I bought, then.

        Now, for my PIC question.  Are any of the following so
obsolete that, if I built something with them, I couldn't replace it
with what's current without a total re-write of the program?

16C54 12c509JW 16F84 16C71JW 16c64jw 17C42

That is pretty much what I have on hand and I do have the UV eraser
for the JW parts.  If memory serves me, the 16c64JW is a 40-pin PIC
that was a sample included in the early PICStartB or C series
programmers around 1996.

        By the way, the Linux tools solve all the interface problems I
had before and it looks like things are about to rock.

        I did read the web page

http://www.finitesite.com/d3jsys/16F628.html

so I know that the 16F84 is obsolete but it sounds like I can go
ahead and use the few I have since their code will fit in to the
16F628.

        If things work out this time, I will get a PICStart Plus which
is supported under Linux.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group

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