I knew you would be back on line asking for help with the pic demo board. First, unless I missed something, the demo board doesn't support in circuit programming. I believe you have to use a separate chip programmer. This means that you have to pop the processor out- program it- pop it back in - test - pop it out- reprogram - pop it in - test. This isn't very productive.
Second, using the pic compiler and IDE provide allot of power, but add complexity to the proto typing effort. There is allot of initializing that has to be done for both the processor, C compiler, linker and assembler. IFI has done this for us. You'll have to duplicate it and strip out the stuff they set up for the dual processor. Third, if your using the free software from microchip , the optimizer is left out. Your code will take more memory in most cases. If you use the IFI provided software, they had it customized for the IFI controller. Don't Know if it affects working with other chips. There are other options out there that might be better for experimentation and proto typing.
What worked for me is the Kronos robotic dios chip and a work board
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/xcart/...52&cat=0&page=
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/xcart/...68&cat=0&page=
The work board has a solderless bread board for proto typing. The Dios chip is the same chip your using only it has a powerful basic interpreter on it. They have examples on site for sonar sensors, Sharp IR senors, digital compasses, serial communications, PWM, quadrature, timers, etc. Allot of work has been done for you. You can make a program change and 3 seconds later your code is running. I've used this set up with some students that just couldn't get started this year with programming on our team. I spent a couple hours with them and this setup. They're off and running teaching me now.