Olin Lathrop wrote

>
>> I sell programmers, so this may be biased.
>
I think that probably you are a bit biased, but not in that way.  It did 
not escape my attention that your recommendation was for Microchip's 
programmer.  :-)

>>  Designing and implementing a
>good programmer is not an appropriate newbie project.  There's a lot more to
>it (if you want to do it right at least) than might be apparent at first.
>And what are you supposed to use to program PICs while developing your own
>programmer?
>  
>
No, I agree.  I could not design a programmer.   If someone came to me 
and pointed a gun at my head, and said: "design a programmer, or die 
like the dog that you are," then I would just have to humbly ask  them 
to aim straight.  No, I could not design a programmer.  But I think that 
I can a build a programmer that someone else has designed.

>> I recommend getting a ICD2.  This can be used as both a programmer and
>debugger.  You don't want to be worrying about your tools when everything
>else is suspect too.
>  
>
I said a while back that I thought perhaps you were a bit biased.  I did 
not say this lightly -- I have read a lot of the archives, and I know 
that you are one of  the guru people on piclist.  Nevetheless, for me, 
trying to build something like the programmer set out at WinPicProg is 
probably better. I think that your bias is toward assuming that we are 
capable of things that we are not capable of.   For one thing, as 
ashamed as I am to have to admit it, spending $17 for a copy of the 
Student Manual for the Art of Electronics called for a major sit-down 
discussion with my wife, and whether the medicine for the eye drops for 
the baby could be stretched out for a few days by perhaps giving her 
half a drop rather  than a whole drop.  :-)   (That is kind of an 
hurting smiley-face, but that is the way life is).  So (and I am not 
asking for sympathy, merely stating how the world is operating these 
days -- I got myself into this situation, and will get myself out) a 
major expenditure for a programmer would take a major decision for us 
both.  I would much rather not have to do that.

So I think that I will try and build a programmer, following someone 
else's proven design.  And I may very well rue the day, too.  :-)  But I 
just have to follow my instincts (although God knows they have not 
served me well in the past).

Best regards,
Bill

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