There's little help for the Encore because it's so new. It's still going through growing pains even now.
The z8encore Yahoo group is fairly active if you want help.
If you buy the development kit, you do not need to make a programmer. The Encore has a one pin in circuit debug/programming pin, that's fast and easy to use with the development environment that comes with the development kit.
You can see my page for an example of setup. It shows the old TIM module programmer, but the new smart cable works exactly the same.
**broken link removed**
If you buy anything, get the Encore 642 development kit. The EncoreXP is a limited chip, and the development tools and programming/debugging cable can be used for any chip in the Encore series, so you can move to the XP later if you want.