thanks Dave, both for the info and the quick response. What you say makes perfect sense, I suppose I will go ahead and pull the trigger. I think I was just worried cuz I spend lots of time doing stuff like counting instructions to make sure loops are not too long and such.

I started with a BS1, and as soon as I got away from the 200uS executes, I haven't looked back. Maybe thats what was spooking me. But as I remember, BS had built in interpretor, so hence long execution time.

First project will be 16F1946 interface card for parallel port to steppers, also handling limit switches, homing and such.

You are right, its really up to the keyboard bangger.

P.S.
Does PBP come with safety glasses or do I need to buy them elsewhere?