Getting started with Hi-tech C..

Hi.. I used to use BoostC (Sourceboost) and then shifted to mikroC.. Now, I have been adviced that Hi-tech C is very good and powerful and I am thinking of picking up Hi-tech C. I have been looking in the internet to try to find a tutorial for hi-tech C that will sort of teach me from the beginning because I heard that hi-tech C is also one of the most difficult compiler to pick up..
Umm, i still haven't found a tutorial yet..
Anybody here using hi-tech C and knows of a good tutorial that I can learn from...?

By the way, just wondering.. What is PIC C Compiler...? Is it Hi-tech C or is it from Microchip..? I saw something like this "HI-TECH PICC Lite COMPILER (Microchip PIC)" and that makes me wonders.. is PIC C actually a Microchip compiler or Hitech compiler..?

HiTech PIC18 C (PICC18) compiler is a product of HTSoft. It costs a lot. They make other products including a compiler for the PIC16 line.

Microchip C18 (MCC18) is a free compiler for the PIC18 line. It is free. They also have a free C30 compiler for the dsPIC30/dsPIC33/24F lines.

I've talked to Microchip people who swear MCC18 benchmarks so much better than PICC18, however, I have code which runs far far faster on PICC18. I don't know if my code might have been written with some sort of feature that causes anomalously slow behavior with MCC18.

PICC18 is not hard to learn at all.

PICC18 pulled an odd stunt where the code doesn't have to know if a pointer goes to an item of data in constant program space or in variable RAM space. This is not consistent with the architecture which completely separates the two types of space and accesses them by completely different methods. IIRC if it's like a 4K RAM part, the linker never places constant data in the lowest 4k of program space so when a pointer gets references it tests to see if it's numerically under 4K, if so it uses RAM accesses, if over 4K, it uses totally different code that accesses program space.

Ahh.. Thanks..

Hmm.. In terms of syntax, can HiTech code be compiled in Microchip C18 and vice versa..? I mean, forexample, in BoostC, to set a bit HIGH, you would use "set_bit(porta,0)" and in mikroC, you would use "PORTA.0 = 1". The way to set a bit HIGH is totally different. That is just the simple stuff.. How about writing stuff onto the LCD..?

I have downloaded the HiTech C but when I start the program, I really don't know what to do. I was told that to do a simple code (say, to turn on a series of LED), I would need to set a whole buch of stuff related to the PIC in order to compile and build it correctly.. But in BoostC, i just need to set the PIC model and clock speed and that is the same with mikroC, if I am not mistaken..

Well, as for now, I just would like to learn how to do the basic stuff first such as lighting up an LED, display words onto LCD and stepper motor control.. Is there a step by step guide/tutorial that shows me the basic process..?

At the moment PIC 16F series are prefered (because I am more familiar with PIC16F877). But if there is a really good tutorial for 18 series then that would be better..

Thanks..

Just downloaded the PIC C manual (not PIC C18).. will be reading it for a while..