Thanks for your reply Maarten, I am still trying to learn about the differences between the various PICs I think my original email was "trimmed" in my posting as the rest stated: "I am new to micros and need to select a compiler that will carry me not just through the beginner stage but serve me into the future. I am looking specfically at MBasic, mEL Picbasic Pro, Hitech C, and CCS C. I do not mind paying for a compiler unless there is a better free one. Has anyone used some/all of these compilers and can give me the pros and cons on them? Are there any others that anyone can recommend (sticking to Basic and C)? " Which compiler do you use for the chips that you recommended? Is there much of a difference between C and Basic in speed, size and features? Regards Fred >From: "Maarten Hofman" >Reply-To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." >To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." >Subject: Re: [PIC] >Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 22:52:05 -0500 > > > I am an experienced programmer in C and Basic on PCs and am looking to > > program 16F84, 16F628, 16F876 and 16F877 chips. > >I recommend NOT using the 16F84, using a 16F648A instead of the 16F628 >(unless you plan to do a commercial product, but in that case you can >always scale down to the 16F627A/16F628A afterwards), and using the >16F876A and 16F877A instead of the 16F876 and 16F877. See discussions >elsewhere on this list for more information. I would also seriously >consider looking into the 18F series of PICmicros. They tend to be >more C friendly (resulting in even tighter code), are not much more >expensive and have many features that now make me wish I had used them >from the start. Of course, all this depends on having a good >programmer, but as the PICkit 2 is inexpensive and now supports most >PICmicros, there isn't a really good excuse to sticking with old PICs >because of a bad programmer. > >Greetings, >Maarten Hofman. > >-- >http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >View/change your membership options at >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist