On Wed, 2014-07-02 at 19:26 -0500, Richard R. Pope wrote:
> Bob,
>      I couldn't afford Hi-tech's products and I really like Microchip's=20
> IDE. What puzzles me is that X worked fine six months ago. I did a clean=
=20
> install of XP and it still won't work. It locks up the whole computer.=20
> MPLAB 8.x works but it is crude compared to X.
>      I'll have to look at UltraEdit. I wonder what I could use to do the=
=20
> compiling that is free. I like C much better than Assembly.

Take a look at SDCC.  It is way better than it used to be.  The PIC code
it produces tends to be kind of crappy, but I couldn't find a measurable
way to show it is more crappy than HiTech, and it uses standard file
formats.  And it has multiple targets, so if you are also playing with
other architectures, it supports many, although generally not targets
that are already supported by gcc.

BTW, if you are not making stuff for production, look at the 16 bit
parts.  In small quantities the price is almost identical, even the
dsPICs, they are far more C friendly, and they are supported by gcc
which has become pretty much the gold standard of compilers.  The one
down side is that they tend to be a little more power hungry.  Pretty
much the only time I use the 8 bit parts anymore is for power sensitive
applications, which is a tiny part of what I do.

--McD


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