Yes Ralph I can understand your frustration. The book mentioned by you - by the Mazidi ( brothers? ) is a good one and I have got it. Take time to read through the appendix in the end where they talk about the port hardware in some good detail - sort of condensed from the Philips bible. Also I liked the chapters on Serial port implementation. Simple and straight.

Incidentally did you find time to run my code ? Its a code that can be plugged into a simulator and the port pin P1.0 viewed.

Raghu