Why is this so hard? HSEROUT problems.

[groston]

I have been working with PIC and PBP for several weeks now. Thus far, it has been a continual exercise in frustration. (FYI - I have been developing real-time control systems for 20 years, i.e., I am not a neophyte.)

Enough griping. (Well, the PBP documentation sucks - OK, griping done.)

My application, built using a PIC 16F88 with PBP V2.47, is not working. So, I figured I'd use the debugging capability in microCode Studio (V 2.3.0.0) to try to figure things out. (I have the meLabs U2 USB programmer.) Couldn't get it to work. So, I built a simple circuit to test serial communications. This also doesn't work.

I have attached a zip file with some further information:
1: commCircuit.gif: this shows the as-built schematic. Much of this was copied from the schematic for the meLabs X18 board.
2: serTst.pbp: he exciting source code, all 41 lines of it
3: config.jpg: screen shot of the configuration option for the meLabs Programmer (V4.20)
4: output.txt: data acquired using the built-in serial communication tool

What I have observed:
1: The LED should flash with a period of one second on, one second off. It does not. It turns one and off, typically more than once per second, with the time period seemingly random.
2: The serial message received are garbage. (see output.txt)
3: Changing the baud rate from 9600 to 300 had no impact.

I think the hardware is configured properly, but this just isn't working. (In fact, at one point, I had forgotten to hook pin 15 of the MAX232 to ground, and with this pin floating and with the HSERIN line commented out, the system performed mostly as expected... weird.)

I can really use your help. I am already behind schedule and due to familial obligations, am likely to fall even further behind without help.

Thank you!