MCS is NOT free if used by an educational institution. I think that is what he is complaining about.

Luckily, any editor will work and there are lots of free boot loaders out there.

I would recommend checking some of the free programmer's editors because they allow you to enter keywords into a config file. If you use a picbasic config file, it would highlite the commands much in the same way as mcs.


I use the following boot loader. I like the fact that it doesn't lock the serial port. I can leave it on screen and it only opens the comport when downloading. I have another program that uses the comport while my PIC is running. This means I can have both onscreen and set to the same comport.

http://www.ehl.cz/pic/pic_e.htm

I do not have the mclr hooked up. Only the rs232 rx/tx. When I click on the [write] button to send the firmware, I push the reset button on my PIC board. The boot loader then auto-kicks into action and the program downloads in just a few seconds.