16F877A problem: "coupled" digital values

[T.Jackson]

I do not think your post was inappropriate, just thought you posted to the wrong forum.
There are a few here that use "C" and I understand needing help.

Tried PIC programming in "C" a few years ago and like you I could not find help. That was one of the reasons I ended up using PIC BASIC.

Good luck.

C / Java is not as intimidating as it first looks - but you will find it difficult to learn from just reading a book. I learned more about Java from 100pgs of lecture material that was straight to the point than I did from reading portions of a 1,000pg book. The practical assignments helped as well. It's clearly a language that needs to be taught formally with a lot of resources for help.

[mackrackit]

C / Java is not as intimidating as it first looks.

About six months ago I purchased two Java books. I am starting to make a little progress. Now my biggest problem is finding time to work on it. The IDEs like NetBeans just made it more confusing. Every one seems to have a different method. Now I am using gedit and compiling from the command line.

[T.Jackson]

Personally, I just compile at console level. Typically I'll have two instances, 1 for compiling and the other for running / testing. As you may or may not be aware, java files need to be launched at console level unless you create a jar file with the inclusion of a manifest in order to be able to execute the program at OS level (double click to run) - which is your typical Windows-based executable. Sadly, this is as about as good as it gets for a standalone application with Java.

[mackrackit]

I got the manifest and jar things figured out. Those were some of the things the books did not cover well. Google to the rescue.

The thing I like about java and the reason I want to learn it is its cross platform capability.

[T.Jackson]

Java is king for that. No time lost learning Java, it uses the same syntax as C, it's object oriented, performance wise it's arguably almost par with C, will never be "as" quick because of the latency of the (VM) - Virtual Machine. I did a bit of a comparison test with Java & BASIC a few months ago - Java puts BASIC to shame (up to 20 times more efficient)