Quote Originally Posted by Joe S.
Hi Mister_e,
The 16F88 seems to be extra labor intensive and not suitable for newbies, as it has so many registers that require you to set and other little quirks, there are several open posts this month by people (like myself) who are a little short on experience, that are having trouble with this device. I think they would do better with a 16F628a / 648a or 16F876 / 877 etc. At least until they get their sealegs.
To some extent that comment may be true but as the 16F88 is so versatile you can use it for many different projects so will quickly learn its quirks.

I was using 16F628 for 18pin projects and 16F877 for 40 pin projects.

I am now using 16F88 and 18F452.

My 40 pin project outgrew the capabilities of the 877 and my reason for getting started with the F88 was because it can be bootloaded. A real boon for developing code