Olin Lathrop wrote: > The simulator is the best debugging environment as long as your > inputs are simple enough to be simulated. Several times I've written > programs that process a higher level description of input to the PIC > and then generate a stimulus output file. > > When the input can't be reasonably simulated, the next best > environment is the ICE2000 or ICE4000. I think you left out an option that sometimes is quite useful. There are simulators that are a SPICE engine coupled with something like the MPLAB simulator, for example Labcenter Proteus . They allow a much more elaborate simulation of input stimuli. Given that it is a SPICE engine, the simulation outside the processor is not limited to electronics (if you have the time to create good enough models :). > ... and the trace capability can be useful for figuring out how > something got messed up when the first symptom is well downstream. > You don't need it often, but when you do it's really nice to have. I used real ICEs on some jobs, way in the past, mostly Z80 and such. That was fun, and the trace memory is the one thing I miss most. Gerhard -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist