I've been using Microchip's C18 compiler for several years, and it's
served me well. As others have suggested, you may as well start with the
18 series, as it's quite a bit more powerful, makes nicer C code, and
gives you room to grow. I'm still using 16 (and 12) for really small stuff
written in assembly. Anything of any size, though, I go right to the 18
and C (with interrupt service routines in assembly). As far as which chip,
it's largely determined by how much I/O and what periperhals you need for
the particular project. Choose the cheapest chip that will do the job.
Microchip has a pretty nice pin compatible upgrade path giving you more
ram, flash, eeprom, and enhanced peripherals.

Microchip has a free student version of their compiler on their website.
Great for learning. It's the same as the regular version, but
optimizations turn off after some period of time.

Harold


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