ACCU Home page ACCU Conference Page
Search   Contact us ACCU at Flickr ACCU at GitHib ACCU at Facebook ACCU at Linked-in ACCU at Twitter Skip Navigation

ACCU Menu

Advertisement

Advertisement

Membership

Join ACCU

Login

» Create an account

» Password Reminder

ACCU Buttons

Add them to your site:

ACCU: professionalism in programming (116x31 px)
ACCU: professionalism in programming (225x60 px)

Search in Book Reviews

The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
Search is a simple string search in either book title or book author. The full text search is a search of the text of the review.
    View all alphabetically
Title:
PIC Your Personal Introductory Course
Author:
John Morton
ISBN:
0-7506-3932-6
Publisher:
Newnes
Pages:
245pp
Price:
£12-99
Reviewer:
Chris Hills
Subject:
embedded systems; internals and hardware
Appeared in:
11-2
If you are interested in PIC buy this book before Newnes realise that they are only charging£12.99 ($18-00).

Hidden in one of the appendices is the author's email address (and other PIC contacts) along with a rather confusing order form for the PCB's for the projects in the book. (From a UK source). Also in the appendices is the URL for the author's web site for all things PIC and other links. I expect if you ask nicely the author will even email the source to save you copy typing. (If he has any sense he will put the entire source on the web.)

The text assumes very little but goes a long way. Simple projects are used to illustrate the development process. I.e. analyse the problem before you decide which PIC to use. Obvious? Yes, but it is amazing how many people (including "professionals") design everything round their favourite CPU! There some simple exercises in each chapter to illustrate points with the answers somewhat hidden at the back. There are also worked examples. Very useful is the list "If all else fails. Read this!" of common mistakes that the author has made (and of course you never would).

One of the nice touches is that all the schematics have all the component values on. These ARE working circuits not just theory. It also means they can be built on Vero and people do not have to buy the PCB.

Students and hobbyists have a gift in this book! At this price I would not be surprised if Microchip start giving it away to students instead of the standard data CD! At least with this book people are likely to buy and use PIC's. Highly recommended for students and hobbyists.