Stamp or PIC?

[velocipenguin]

Originally Posted by phrontist

Okay, I've deciced to go with PICs, but now the question is: What programmer? Any good ones available commercially for the 8-pin pics? I have modest soldering skills, but no PCB capability, can I make one?

Take a look at this one:
http://www.jdm.homepage.dk/newpic.htm

It can program many PICs, including some of the 12-series 8-pin ones and the ever-popular 16F84. It's easy enough to build on perfboard if you don't want to make a PCB, and the parts cost is negligible.

Some PICs, such as the 16F877, have "self-programming" capabilities; that is, they can be loaded with special bootloader software that allows them to accept new programs via a serial link to two I/O pins without any fancy programming hardware. Unfortunately, they have to have the bootloader installed before they can do that, which requires a working programmer...