a question about microcontrollers

Hey Guys,
I am a new member here
My name Is Mohammed Soliman , And I am from Egypt
I wanted to ask about the best way to program PIC microcontrollers , which simulator should I use? which programmer software? and which programmer hardware?
i will be very grateful to you all
I want to know if the PIC 16f84A lasts with you for a long time
i have bought 2 till now , but neither of them survived with me more than 2 weeks
moreover, i hope you can tell me about the best programming language to use " assembly, C++, Basic " and why?
thanks for eveyone in advance

Answers
MPLAB 8.01
PICkit 2 or my Junebug
18f84A will last for ages, you're doing something out of spec with it
Use a 16f628a instead, better part at half the price
If you can get a 16f88 then that chip supports debug.

Hi, to start out, Nigel's software is good, winpicprog.co.uk/ the best assemblers / sims are free from microchip.com (MPLAB Suite)
The 16f84 is outdated and to expensive, I use PIC16f628a. I started with assembly, I love it, would never go for C or BASIC. Read through the Datasheet (Also from microchip), it contains most of the info you will need.

An older tutorial here.

**broken link removed**

Nigel's site also has a tutorial Pic16f628 (Mostly compatible with 16f84).

Just thinking, is Egypt's heat messing with the pic?



Good luck,
William

Bill, you posted while I was still typing!

thanks every one for replying
i have one more question
i used to use a program called "Pic simulator IDE" for Simulation and "IC prog" for programming the PIC
if any one can tell me which is better these programs or Mplab , i would be grateful

I personally haven't used it, but, since Microchip made the thing, I would guess that Microchip's is better.

If you mean the Oshonsoft simulator, yes it's very good.
As for IC prog, it's a little old and your mileage may vary.
MPLAB is free, download it and take a look.