[amsat-bb] Re: Programming language recommendation?

["Greg D." <ko6th_greg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bruce,

How does the Picaxe compare to the BASIC Stamp line from Parallax?  I've built several Stamp projects, and they were very easy to deal with.

Greg  KO6TH


----------------------------------------
> Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 23:07:38 -0300
> From: ve9qrp@gmail.com
> To: gordonjcp@gjcp.net
> CC: amsat-bb@amsat.org
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Programming language recommendation?
> 
> I appreciate Gordon's expert opinion below. If you'd like something
> that is very, very simple to work with in order to  explore the world
> of PIC programming, you should also consider the picaxe line of
> products. These  comprise PIC chips with a basic interpreter on
> board. The wiring for the programmer is very simple, and the toolchain
> is easy because it removes the compiling stage.
> 
> While I'm trying to  move on to the atmel line, using this inexpensive
> programmer:
> http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/index.html
> 
> I still find the picaxe chips  dead  handy for all sorts  of little
> jobs because so much is built into them.
> 
> As  for computer programming, I would encourage someone returning to
> this  practice to consider adding one of the cross-platform scripting
> languages to his or her arsenal. Ruby and Python are both good
> choices.
> 
> 
> 73, Bruce
> VE9QRP
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 7:18 AM, Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ
>  wrote:
>> JW wrote:
>>> Along the same line: anyone on here doing PIC programming or know of a
>>> list for beginners? From CW keyers to Antenna control units and
>>> everything in between it looks like it would be fun to program some
>>> gadgets for around the shack...
>>
>> Without lighting up a PIC/AVR flamewar, I've pretty much entirely moved
>> from PIC to AVR.  The hardware is generally two to four times faster for
>> the same clock rate (gets more done per cycle) and is easier to program
>> - you can make up an AVR programmer for the parallel port that's
>> basically three resistors!
>>
>> Furthermore, the toolchain is much better for AVR - Microchip are only
>> interested in pushing their frankly dreadful Windows-only MPLAB
>> software, while Atmel actively contribute to avr-gcc, a cross-platform
>> toolchain based on the industry standard gcc.  The whole AVR community
>> seems a lot better than the PIC one, and I say that as a long-standing
>> user of PIC microcontrollers.
>>
>> In short, PIC is great, but the community isn't as strong and the tools
>> are rubbish.  On the other hand, Microchip are always more than happy to
>>  sample parts and their customer support is *excellent*.
>>
>> AVR is technically superior in pretty much every way, with an excellent
>> community.  Unfortunately Atmel's tech support are a dour bunch who are
>> often hard to get good information out of, and not great at sending samples.
>>
>> I haven't tried the ARM-based AVRs or the MIPS-based PICs yet, though.
>> Those might be something to tempt me back to Microchip, if MIPS is as
>> good as I remember it ;-)
>>
>> Gordon
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