Dave,
Sure, that should work. You can also use the value stored in a variable when writing to the register, like this:
Code:
i VAR BYTE     'Declare a variable named 'i' as a BYTE
i = 8
GPIO = i   'Will set GPIO to %00001000
This in turn means that to make the display count you can do this:
Code:
i VAR BYTE     'Declare a variable named 'i' as a BYTE
MAIN:
FOR i = 0 to 9 'Count up, from 0 to 9
  GPIO = i
  Pause 500
Next

FOR i = 9 to 0 STEP -1  'Count Down, from 9 to 0
  GPIO = 0
  Pause 500
Next

Goto Main             'Do it again
May I kindly suggest that you also read thru the PBP manual a lot of what we've gone thru here is available in it, sometimes in a bit more condensed form but if you read thru it you'll get a better picture of "what's available", then we can work on the details and specifics together.