> In order of preference, just slide down until you hit your
> desired cost.

Nice list!

At the bottom end, add the various circuits supported by ic-prog.

At the top end, add professional varying-vcc programmers, and various
ICE's.

As alternative consider a bootloader as first step (especially, maybe
only, when you are not yet sure whether you will ever use more than one
PIC). I offer a complete board that makes an easy start
http://www.voti.nl/dwarf/doc/DB016.pdf. There are numerous alternatives
to this in the higher-prices category, including boards from Microchip
that also contain various peripherals on-board. An maybe the
piclist-starter-kit will be created any time soon? ;)

Wouter van Ooijen

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Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products

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