Getting started with PIC programming

[Digsy]

A question for the electronics bods:

 

I've been working on a mini electronics project for several months now using mainly analogue components. It has got to the level of complexity and discrete parts count that I think I would be better moving it to a single PIC chip.

 

I've been reading through the tutorial here and once you get your head round the assembly language it doesn't look too hard (I used to program my ZX Spectrum without using an assembler ) I'd be interested to know more about the ones that let you program in BASIC though, just to save my old brain cells

 

So it looks like I need a programmer and maybe some sort of simulator to get myself going. Maplins sell ready-made programmers for £40 and the chips themselves are dirt cheap (another advantage).

 

Anything else I should know?