If you have a knowledge of any of the BASIC's, then PICBASIC will allow you to quickly put together programs for the PIC microcontrollers without having to learn Assembler. Naturally, if you are comfortable with Assembler, then you needn't bother spending your money on PICBASIC, however, you will still be able to program PIC's much quicker with PICBASIC than you would with Assembler. If time is money, then PICBASIC is a good investment.

PICBASIC PRO has many useful features not found in the basic offering. You will soon wish you has purchased the PRO. Go to the MeLabs website www.melabs.com and compare the two, then decide for yourself.