Oshonsoft is a pretty good tool... The software has been updated several times but it still seems to be sluggish..
Most inbiult functions still don't use hardware serial, pulse out, pulse in etc.. but it will do most things..
C in my view is the easiest language to do things with!! Assembly is the fastest operationally.. Basic is the fastest to market... But C allows a really good ability to do everything... Low level is very achievable and high level enough to make development much faster than assembler..
I have just fixed my door chime!!! I stuck a pic12f675 on a piece of stripboard the same size as the old PCB inside the chime... Then as the code will be several lines started coding an assembled program to chime when the door opens... After 10 mins, I dropped all the assembler stuff and within 5 more mins had a C code up and running!! Job done..
But!!! I'm quite conversant with C now so it comes more natural to me.. If you end up learning C, you can still use assembler to make functions and have your main code in C... Best of both worlds..
Try and ditch basic... Its too cumbersome and sluggish!! I ended up writing more functions to compensate the slow ones that are ready available...