Thank you Mr RB,
Firstly I have fairly extensive experience in design/implementation of all sorts of electronic stuff ie. I built my first PC in 1979 completely hand built the boards both computer and video, all on the then S100 bus - what surprised me at the time was it worked. A small new company used to send me sample chips for development purposes, that small company was Intel! wish I had bought shares then... Anyway I digress. I have zero experience with PIC so from that point of view are starting from scratch and some advice from those with experience is certainly appreciated as I progress this application.
I have read most of the 'Getting started stuff' on this site which is a really excellent resource and will source today a Dev kit using that device you have recommended and get started. hey, how hard can it be, only 35 commands...
Cheers and thanks.