[jratcliff]

Thanks all for the excellent advice. I have been reading documentation today and I think I have a handle on the flow of control now.

I did run into one weird problem, I wonder if anyone else is having. I tried downloading the latest version of the MPLAB-IDE from the microchip website and every time I download any version I get CRC errors when I try to unzip the file. Has anyone else experienced this?

To answer a few points that were raised in the thread.

(1) I am mentoring a total of six students on our FRC team in programming. I spent four hours giving them a one on one training course on Saturday; these were all Freshmen with little to no programming experience with the exception of my son.

(2) My son is really interested in taking a leadship position on the team. He has been programming for quite some time and is really excited about contributing not just this year, but in years to come. My personal goal is to give him enough experience working with the VEX robot at home that he can be much more involved on the FRC project at school. The robotics club meets frequently but with my work schedule the only time I can make available is on Saturday.

(3) The reason I am focusing on MPLAB and C, rather than Easy C, is because that is easier for me personally at this time. I'm sure the youth will have opportunities to be exposed to the Easy C paradigm at future events throughout the year. However, in the short term, it is much easier for me to just program in native C code since that is a high iteration cycle path. Yesterday I felt a bit lost in all of the acronyms but a morning of reading yet more documentation is going a long way towards getting me up to speed.

Thanks all for the help getting started, it is my hope that I will be of assistance to the general FRC community in years to come and I certainly want to help mentor students in the St. Louis area after this season has completed.

Thanks,

John & Alex