I am utilizing all of the I/O Pins on a 16F876A. I would like to configure port A with 3 analog pins (AN0-AN2) and utilize RA3-RA5 as general purpose IO pins.

Based on the data sheet and its reference to configuring the ADCON1 register it does not look like this is possible. I am wondering what happens if I configure the entire port as an analog port then simply convert RA3-RA5 as outputs? For Example:

ADCON1 = 2 ' CONFIGURE PORT A TO ANALOG (010)
TRISA.3 = 1 ' CONFIGURE PIN AS INPUT
TRISA.4 = 0 ' CONFIGURE PIN AS OUTPUT
TRISA.5 = 0

If I read or write to RA3-RA5 as analog inputs or outputs what affect does this have on AN0-AN2?

Any input appreciated.

Best regards,
Joe.