gnupic@linuxhacker.org

	I first joined this list in 2001 and was all ready to program
some PIC's from Linux except that I really didn't have enough serial
ports to go around.  That problem has been fixed by a newer computer
and a USB-port RS-232 expansion device so I now have enough for
various projects I have in mind, one of them being the ability to
program PIC's.

	Now for the questions:

	Where is the proper source for the latest GNUPIC software
these days?

	Can one still operate the simulator in a command-line mode?

	If there is a GNUPIC FAQ that answers all these questions,
please tell me where it is and I can go there.

	I got interested in PIC's many years ago, but have kept
running in to logistical problems in getting a development system up
that I really wanted.  As a computer user who is blind, all the
original PIC software was Windows-based.  There is access to Windows
for people who are blind, but it costs an arm and a leg (easily as
much as the whole computer did), and each application may or may not
work depending upon how it is designed.

	Linux and UNIX in general are much easier to manage except for
X windows, so that is why anything that is command-line driven is apt
to be usable.  Sometimes, the results aren't pretty, but it sure beats
nothing at all.

	One last more general question:  Has anyone tried using one of
the USB-based serial RS-232 ports to drive a PIC programmer?  I don't
know how critical the timing is on those ports, but I bet they are
slightly different than what one finds on a serial port connected
directly to the bus, like Comm1 and Comm2.  The only things I have
used USB-driven RS-232 ports for are remote terminals and the control
of a radio receiver that has an RS-232 control port.  Those
applications showed no difference from the bus-mounted serial ports.

	Thank you.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group