Hi Cory,

it seems, you want to hear some from the big 8051 advantages.

I looked at the Scenix SX, which uses also the PIC instruction set.
And i found the programming extremely awkward:

- Code space is divided into several pages. This causes, that code can not be moved. So, if code was inserted before an already tested code, it can be moved into page boundaries and should crash.

- Only any second page can be destination of a call from another page.

- RAM also divided into several pages.

- No different interrupt vectors for timer overflow and external interrupts. Since also no timer overflow flag on the SX18, there is no way to use both at the same time.

- No stack for data (push, pop), no interrupt priorities.

- No powerful bit manipulation (mov c, bit; orl c, /bit; jbc bit ...).

- Many different derivates with no binary compatibility.
So a lot of directives needed to tell the assembler / compiler the special properties of every derivate. In opposition all 8051 are fully binary compatible. So any newer 8051 derivate can also be supported.

- a special 6 bit character set was used to fit text constants with 2 characters into a 12 bit word.


These all looks devilish for us 8051 guys.
So only C programming seems usable on the PIC to hide the pitfalls.
But I really in doubt, that any C compiler can generate similiar compact code on the PIC as e.g. the Keil on the 8051.


Peter