what program do you use with the PicKit2 to program chips ?

i have a buddy who does this stuff in C and uses MPLAB programming environment to program the chips but it makes you compile every time to program the chip, it seems very unwieldy

re the MCP131 discovery
the data sheet is a bit of a puzzle, in one place it says -RST ABS MAX 13.5V apparently for the whole family on the data sheet, but in another place it says MCP121 only for 13.5V (the difference is '131 has internal pullup)

also in related literature it never shows the '131 for this attribute but always the '121
i have a support ticket at microchip, have never been real impressed with their replies so far but if i find something out i will report back here