Jason Hsu wrote:
> In the process of trying to get started, I can see why Assembly
> language is MUCH more popular among hobbyists than C.

I am surprised by the fact people who replied so far, seem to agree with 
you. Is it really so, that the majority of hobbyists use assembly in their 
projects?

In my opinion, unless your project is a very high-volume, extremely 
price-sensitive commercial product, you shouldn't be using the PIC16F, or 
programming in Assembly. I know this statement has the potential of starting 
a flame war, but please bear with me as we look at the facts.

The 16F is cheaper than the 18F or the 16-bit PICs, but for one-off or 
low-volume projects, the difference is negligible (about $1). See for 
yourself -- click on the product series, and sort by price in ascending 
order (also pay attention to what you get for the money):

PIC16F: http://tinyurl.com/9akkz
PIC18F: http://tinyurl.com/2yg3zw
PIC24H: http://tinyurl.com/2x9k2w

For anything but high-volume projects (many thousands), or projects 
requiring very little code, you will spend *more* per unit if you go with 
the PIC16F.

Microchip has free Student versions of the C18 and C30 compilers. 
Programming in C has many advantages over assembly, but the main one is that 
it makes the code much easier to write, understand, and reuse. It lets you 
focus more on the design, rather than the implementation details, of your 
program. Another big advantage for a beginner, is that there are many more 
resources available for C (books, websites, expert programmers), than for 
the PIC16F flavor of Assembly.

Some folks argue that writing in C results in bloated code, especially on 
Microchip's compilers. However, for most hobbyist projects, performance and 
even the amount of available memory is irrelevant. Even if it wasn't, for 
less than an extra $1, you get a processor with at least 10 times as much 
memory, running at up to 20 times as fast. If that's still not enough (here 
we're assuming that a compiler is 20 times worse at producing assembly than 
a newbie), drop down to inline assembly for the performance-critical 
portions of your program.

I think most of us are familiar with the curve showing the ratio of hardware 
vs software cost over time. Hardware is getting ridiculously cheap. People's 
time, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly more expensive. Pretty 
soon, the 16- and 32-bit PICs will literally cost less than a pack of gum.

The bottom line is, if you are new to PICs, get the Explorer 16 board, or at 
least an 18F, download the free C compiler, and remember that you're writing 
code for humans first, and for computers second. Err on the side of 
readability, even if it comes at the expense of memory locations, or machine 
cycles.

Good luck,

Vitaliy 

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