Hi Kevin,

Since you are new to 8051s, let me make a suggestion. Go to www.keil.com and download their demo IDE package. Many people without µ-controller experience, and everyone who works on more complex projects, find(s) it easier to work in such an environment.

For example, and I'm not absolutely sure of this since there are some differences between C and C++, but in your case one approach decrementing would be

x = x--;