gnupic: Thread: Onward!

Vangelis Rokas had a good idea.  Well, a particularly good idea,
really--mostly because it got me thinking differently. :)

He suggested that we go ahead with a serial port controlled
version of the programmer using an 18F252.  So, the protocol
and the target side of the system could start getting
worked out while we wait for Microchip to release the 18F2455.
Great idea.  We can do this and produce a programmer V1.0.

Later, when Microchip has the bugs worked out of the 18F2455,
we can spin V2.0 with USB support and the rest of the firmware
well tested.

Vangelis also offered to let us be a beta tester of the 16bit
PIC port of SDCC.

Any opinions on this?

Oh, and to address an unspoken question.  I expect that the
programmer software for this--at least the generic non-GUI
dependent version--will be offered to the gnupic project
along with all the firmware and the hardware design.  I'm
doing this for a hobby and because it needs done, not to
make a buck.  Heh, making a buck from this would more likely
come from including it on my resume. :)

So, I guess it's time to modify my parallel port programmer
and software to speak to 18F parts.  Quite a different
procedure to program them.

Cheers,
David