With apologies to Wouter van Ooijen, the following is from his PIC  
tutorial website:

First you know nothing;
YOU ARE HAPPY

You first learn about the chip:
YOU LEARN AND USE ASSEMBLY

You first find out there is an easier way, so you can spare some time  
to watch TV:
YOU LEARN AND USE C

You first find out there is a simpler way, so you can spare all the  
time in TV, cars, girls, bars, traveling, yatch, relaxing, etc:
YOU HIRE SOMEBODY ELSE TO WRITE THE CODE.

You first find out your money is going fast, so you decided to do some  
work:
YOU LEARN AND USE JAL

There are additional steps of course, but I'm stumbling along as I  
proceed past step one.

I think that I have, perhaps, forgotten how to study.  I'm a  
professional technician.  I build engineers' prototypes at work.  For  
that matter, I've had a soldering iron in my hand since I was a  
child.  I think that's part of my problem.  I know what I want to do;  
I know how the I/O pins are supposed to be utilized to design a  
circuit, but I have issues with learning the methodology of writing  
code.

Too many resources?  I have tutorials in Assembly, C, and JAL.  I can  
follow examples in each to light or blink an LED.  Once I accomplish  
that, I know enough to alter the existing code to light or blink an  
LED on an alternative port.

That's where I stop.  I don't know how to put the blocks together to  
proceed with my own ideas.  There may be only 37 or so instructions to  
a 16F84 (for example), but it's knowing what to do with those  
instructions.

So, how does one properly study to learn Assembly or any other  
language for that matter in the most efficient manner?  I follow the  
JAL projects in Bert van Dam's excellent book, and perhaps I'm  
learning something, but I'm doing well in developing my own projects.

I'm just expressing some frustrations.  I'm eager to learn, but I  
think I have too much information at my disposal adding to the  
confusion.  Should I forget Assembler and shelve the other language  
books?  Should I forget Assembler and spend my time learning a high  
level language such as C or JAL?

With any tutorial, I always like projects.  I find it much more  
rewarding to see the results and what changes or errors bring.

Supposedly, it is said that it takes 10 years of diligence to become  
an expert.  Well, maybe I have enough time left that I can achieve  
some manner of proficiency as a programmer.  :-)  I'm essentially at  
ground zero, so there's a lot of work to do!  With all my books et al,  
I just haven't quite began (or perhaps know how to begin) properly.

So, how does a career electronics technician enter into the realm of  
[PIC] programming?

Joe


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