I debated answering this...but figured why not. Well...being a PIC'er since the 15C54 days...I write what I know, and know = what I write. PIC is still my first choice, probably for those reasons. I just finished a board design for an Atmel ATMEG2560. ISP JTAG and the se= rial bootloader interface. SO easy to brick.....fuses are...where? yeah...= .. The new SAM4 stuff...they forgot to allow more than 4mA drive strength..... I get really good support from Atmel because of the number of parts being u= sed here, but even with that, Microchip has always been better for me at le= ast. TI? I've had more issues with code corruption on MSP430's than anything I'v= e ever seen. TI support has been hit and miss, but they have a new FAE tha= t is supporting me now. And there is one last App's engineer working there= that knows stuff...I use him sparingly so not to abuse the friendship that= 's developed over the years. The decline? More people...engineers, hobbyist, etc are using the "off the= shelf" solutions such as Ardunio, Beagle, Pi. Why not...software is somet= imes the simple path. Hardware design is falling off because these are now= becoming just software solutions. I still design "use specific" hardware = when using something off the shelf just doesn't solve the problem. And the= fact that ARM processors are SO cheap. The Pi is a good example, I use it= as a audio processor that plugs into a PIC based board....the Pi just didn= 't lend itself to the overall solution. I still enjoy this list, there are a lot of smart folks here, and you can p= ost pretty much anything and get a variety of answers and solutions. I mis= s the days of Jory, Andy, others but I think that the group has matured, an= d there isn't a lot of new users perhaps. We are a dying breed perhaps :-) -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of= Bob Blick Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 9:34 AM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [OT]:: The reason for the (putative) PICList decline. If one must have a reason, the one I see is that PICs are crappy microproce= ssors and Microchip has no idea how to put together a coherent line of part= s. Just comparing forums, the Piclist, 43oh, and avrfreaks, it's easy to see t= hat Atmel makes the most popular micros of the three. Microchip may sell a = lot of parts but they are (relatively) no fun to use. I don't design with PICs anymore. The world has moved on. And Microchip's n= ew offerings aren't as good as those from other vendors. Bob On Tue, Dec 9, 2014, at 02:46 AM, RussellMc wrote: > " ... Russell is actually more responsible than any other single > person for the decline of the PIClist. Look at the volume over time, > particularly > noting when Russell became a admin. ... Olin Lathrop". > Elsewhere. > > So. > Now you know. > Apparently. > > R -- http://www.fastmail.com - Does exactly what it says on the tin -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/chang= e your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclis= t ________________________________ PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this electronic mail message is i= ntended only for the use of the designated recipient(s) named above. If the= reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notif= ied that you have received this message in error and that any review, disse= mination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. = If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender = by telephone or e-mail (as shown above) immediately and destroy any and all= copies of this message in your possession (whether hard copies or electron= ically stored copies). --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .