hullo and thanks for the reply, yeah now that I've cooled off and had some dinner I can now better try to convey some of my frustrations,, I suppose the fact that I am also 4 days into quitting smoking cold-turkey hasn't been a help (surely my kitties agree).
As far as my software writing capabilities go, they are minimal. I've taken some time in the past to learn a bit of BASIC, have read a few C and Cpp lesson-books but seem to have a hard time retaining the lessons or something.
One of my favorites that I still reference is Learn C Now- an old C programming book from the 80's. It is a great starter book and still useful. Unfortunately it doesn't get into much specifics and also doesn't cover anything beyond the true basics. So, I know my basics of program structure, operators, expressions and statements, basic program flow control (if, while, case, etc.) can write some basic functions, very basic macros, a bit about pointers and arrays, unions, etc- most of the very basic stuff that is used in writting code for x86 platforms. I'm at about the same spot in both my C and cpp progress- I know enough to write some simple code but not enough to make it do anything useful!
Writing C or cpp for a micro I have no clue! I've often gone over others code blocks in an effort to gather some idea about writing my own- and the funny thing is that I am able to read through the bulk of it,, yet writing my own is an impossibility, if that makes any sense at all. I don't even know where to start.
ASM I would rather learn- I'd like to think that I'm capable, but the truth is that I've had some honest cracks at it and its never gotten past the first few lessons. I can make a LED blink, yippie!,, its about the equivalent to what I can write in C for x86! Again, I am able to read through others code much of the time- I usually understand ~80% of mid-range pic asm,, I haven't yet used any pic18's seriously. The instructions are no large mystery- I guess it is just putting it into context or something?
I have found out the really hard way that I learn better with examples I am able to rapidly implement- the more time and run around that I have to invest in learning something that more frustrated I become- its a major flaw but difficult to remedy.
I am trying to work with a bunch of pic16f's right now,, my staple (like many others) is the 16f876a/877a. I've build my own programmer, dev boards, sensor breakouts, etc- i have lots to play with once I am able to get coding proficiently. Up until very recently I have been relying on others' code for doing my experiments, but it is just cheating myself and not going to be much use for custom projects, robot firmware, etc, of which I have many that are just waiting for my coding skills to 'catch-up'.
I have not tried the Nigel's tuts yet I don't think- I could be wrong though because the name does ring a bell for me. link? geez- my bad -I do actually have it bookmarked- I just haven't used it yet! I'll check those lessons out!
I think I would be smarter to try the C again, but also do not want to give up with the assembly. Any ideas folks? thanks for the efforts--jd>> yeah I just verified that all of the tutorials I do have are asm oriented- I have 0 pic-C-programming tutorials,, I would benefit from having a good one- for the asm I think I have the best tuts already but just need to flounder-through them,,follow-thu.
Hullo 'toodles' ,, your post came in after I started this one so...
yeah I have no $$ to buy a C compiler- I have all the free ones, and demos for wingdows and also cpik under linux but haven't yet used it beyond simple LED blinker. My programmer is a simple serial jdm design,, I am planning to finish a ICD clone soon. I do use MPsim but have a hard time understanding its results oftentimes (like today). My projects are all robot oriented in some way- most are modular blocks which will eventually be integrated into a final bot project, but I would like to learn and experiment with them separately first! This is where I get stuck- I mean I can always find someone else who has played with what I am working with, and use their blocks,, but when it comes time to integrate I'm in more trouble.....this is about where I'm currently at I guess.
I suppose I need to invest even more time into finishing the lessons I already have-- but again I haven't had much luck with them yet and time is really passing. I'm ashamed to say how long I have been at it already, honestly. Maybe I have a learning disorder.....