learn assembly.

project: try writing a simple assembler. it may help you learn the assembler mnemonics by heart. The output would be an Intel Hex file; type "intel hex format specification" into google and look for the pdf file.

You should learn assembly anyway, so:
- you can read the assembler output of
the C compiler, for understanding,
verification, and debugging.
- you can optimize sections of your
code if you exceed timing margins
on some project.
- to better learn the workings of
the 8051.

If you become heavily involved in assembly,
on an actual project, you may not notice
much difference in effort between
programming in C and assembly, once you've
learned assembly.

C is faster to program in than assembler; each C statement will equal 0 to N assembler statements, and much effort has gone into producing C libraries, why reinvent them if you don't have to? But assembly output from C compilers can be fatter than necessary, wasting execution time.

recently, i have only used the Archimedes 8051 IDE, it cost $2K but their website
is down, at least right now (www.archimedesinc.com; the DNS
entry is still registered).

james