First see the sticky posts for this forum for a lot of
how to get started info.
For a first time PICer I suggest you buy your first programmer. It will save you a lot of time and headache. Maybe the
PIC-PG2. With shipping about $15. You will not be able to use MPLAB with it, but since the 16F84A does not have any breakpoints there is no real downside. SparkFun provides the schematics for the PIC-PG2 and other programmers so you could build one from scratch if you like.
In time you will want to move up to an
In Circuit Debugger like the Inchworm ICD2 clone kit that was designed by one of the regulars on this forum.
3v0