> On Sunday, Jan 18, 2004, at 14:54 US/Pacific, Herbert Graf wrote:
>
> > I agree, and in fact, unless you REALLY have a specific need for an 8
> > pin
> > part I'd forget about the 12F's and stick the with 18F parts. The 16F
> > architecture has "quirks" that don't exist in the 18F line and make
> > PICs a
> > little harder then they need to be for a complete beginner.
>
> 1) i would sort of think that learning about "quirks" would be an
> important
>     part of a 'serious' "intro to embedded programming"

        No. The quirks in the 16F series I speak of have NOTHING to do with an
"intro to embedded programming", but are instead side effects of Microchip
trying to keep things as simple on the silicon end as possible.

        The 18F series is far more "logical" to use, and while it's instruction
count IS higher it is far easier to start out with. I know, I started with
the 16F series and still remember my amazement at how much easier the 18F
architecture was for a newbie to understand.

> 2) Once you decide to go to a new, non-quirky 28 or 40 pin chip without
>     all the hobbyist history of the 16F series, are you still sure you
>     want to use a PIC?  I mean, there are LOTS of $10 40pin flash
>     microcontrollers.  (hmm.  Aside from the expense of tools, I wonder
>     if a 'comparative religionxxxxx I mean microcontroller" class where
>     you implement the same project on several different chips would be
>     more beneficial than an in-depth study of one particular chip...)

        The 18F is fairly compatible with the 16F, and therefore all the hobbyist
resources out there map quite well to the newer parts.

----------------------------------
Herbert's PIC Stuff:
http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/

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