@ All - Thanks for your responses: certainly food for thought.
@ SneaKSz: Purposes are general experimentation and learning; there's not any particular area of PIC programming I am focusing on heavily right now as I consider myself to be a virtual beginner.
@ Wp100: I have had a look at Microchip's boards but nothing really caught my eye: they seemed to be specific to various areas, while what I'm looking for should really be of a more general purpose nature. Or maybe I've not seen the full range of their products - I found their site a bit difficult to navigate.
It's a pity that the MikroElektronika board demands that we use their software: it looks like the sort of thing I could "grow" into; but, as you said, it's not fully MPLAB compatible.
A home-made board is starting to sound like the most viable option...
@ 3v0: I'd really like a board which allows me to chop and change to a considerable degree, given my PIC-novice status and the fact that I seem to learn best by tinkering with things.
- Analogue.