Bill Kuncicky wrote:
> I don't want to argue -- after all, I AM asking for advice :-) -- but I
> don't think that getting a programmer right now is a good idea.
> Probably different people have different ways of learning, but my best
> way seems to be to read as much as I can, and get an overall view of
> things, before starting to experiment.

I agree with you too.  Read the docs first.  Far too many people want
instant gratification and skip over important things.  They may get an LED
to light a little quicker, but get lost much more easily.  Spend the time up
front to really read the documentation and you'll spend a lot less time
doing it in the long run.

The simulator is quite good and definitely the easiest debugging
environment -- assuming your app doesn't require complex interactions with
the outside world.  The simulator will allow you to 100% debug the tool
chain, make sure the assembler/libarian/linker are doing the right things,
MPLAB is properly set up, etc.  It will get you about 95% of the way there
debugging your PIC code for something output-only like an LED blinker.  This
allows you to separate hardware problems from most software problems and get
the pure software largely working first.  Otherwise, you end up loading the
code in the PIC and find nothing happens.  Now which one of the few dozen
things went wrong?

There is no need, in fact it's a waste of time, to touch hardware until the
code runs properly on the simulator.  You'll still have a few things to
debug with the real hardware after that, but at least you'll have some
confidence in the software.  The usual culprits in this phase are power
problems, oscillator problems, improper config settings, floating PGM pin,
MCLR not driven correctly, and a few others.  But we're getting ahead of
ourselves.  Get the code running in the simulator first, then try the
hardware, and ask here if you get stuck along the way.

With your attitude you'll get an LED blinking a week later than most, but a
month after that you'll be way ahead of the instant gratification crowd
(which is unfortunately way too many newbies judging from the posts here).
You're going about this the right way.  Keep plugging.


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