It all depends on your knowledge, both software and hardware.
I got my degree in electrical engineering in 1990.
I never did any design...actually I never did any electrical
engineering!
I'm good in BASIC, and I'm working on my soldering skills.
I want to introduce my kids to electronics, so I want to start from
the very basics.
I like making gadgets for Halloween, and I'd like to use
microcontrollers for things like this:
http://www.cowlacious.com/CaveEyes.htm
I just got the Parallax "What's a Microcontroller" kit.
It's great! It uses BASIC, so I don't need a separate compiler.
So it's working out well as an intro, but I eventually want to be able
to flash a PIC and use it in a standalone circuit/project.
I was reading about MPLab, and how PICBASIC can now be used with it.
Is that a good way to go if I don't want to learn C (or re-learn
assembly)?