Rating: 
Summary: Clear, concise, thorough.
Review: I've found that other books try to help the reader understand the PIC microcontroller by over-simplifying it. This book, however, shows you exactly how the PIC works and teaches you all of the techniques you need to know to develope your own PIC-based applications.
Rating:
Summary: This Book is EXCELLENT!
Review: If theres anything i can say about this book it's that it helps you not only understand how to program the pic chip but also many aplications that they can be and are used in. Myke Predko covers beginners to advanced pic programming and he makes it easy to understand and addictive to read. A disk is also included to show examples and includes code for everything in the book and more! but it NOW! You wont regret it.
Rating:
Summary: A well written, fun and easy guide.
Review: Just picked up this book to learn a thing or two about the PIC. Found the authors explanations to be clear and easy, and the experiments very useful for applying knowledge. Well Done!
Rating:
Summary: A beginners "bible" on the MICROCHIP "PIC".
Review: Myke Predko has done with this book what few authors have been able to, and that is to explain the "PIC" in down to earth terms and help the reader to realize all the possibilities of what can be done with the "PIC". His projects are very helpful in the learning process. This is a good book to start with if you're new to programming the "PIC".
Rating:
Summary: The author has successfully simplified a complex subject
Review: Myke Predko has successfully managed to reduce a complex subject into an easily graded path through increasing complexity. The book is well laid out with plenty of diagrams. It will survive as a reference guide long after your initial reading.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Myke's book does a very good job of explaining how the pic works and how to base a design around the pic. The book is loaded with examples and good explanations. A necessity for anyone interested in learning to use these controllers.
Rating:
Summary: detailed and complete
Review: Myke's book is more detailed and will give you a more complete knowledge of the PIC MCU than any of the other books I have seen on this subject. Several different pics are covered, not just the 16x84, giving the ability to move on to the rest of the PIC line with relative ease. The software included on disk covers all the projects in the book and has useful routines that you will want in your development files ( such as: lcd, I2C, & serial). The stimulus files for the simulator and include files are also included The programming is covered well and there are some tricks, shortcuts and insights that would be difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. Style, high level languages, and macros are covered without damaging the readers individuality or personal preferences. The Microchip development tools are included and their use is fully explained. There is a whole chapter on 16 bit math and the same for useful routines. Hardware takes you through interfacing and driving external electronics with several types of glue logic and several input routines for a-d, switch debounce and much more. Power supply and clocks are covered nicely. The projects are fun, useful and a complete review of all the text. There are invaluable hints on layout as well. Parts for the projects are available and affordable. You would have to buy dozens of electronics magazines to get this many quality projects. The programmer and emulator are worth the cost of the book alone! The author (Myke) is available on the web for corrections and clairifications.
Rating:
Summary: A Highly Recomended Text on the Microchip PIC
Review: Predko's book provides the most detailed coverage of the Microchip PIC Micrcontroller available while still maintaining the reader's attention from beginning to end. In particular, the text stands out in providing both a text book style coverage of the fundamentals followed by an extensive selection of user duplicable projects to reinforce the subject matter. Predko is well known and an active member of the PIC Microcontroller community, and this book offers the reader the chance to glean from his vast experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a re-write
Review: Reading this, I felt sorry for Mr. Predko. Doesn't McGraw-Hill have editors to point out that it is customary to create a logical, linear progression of concepts? Were there no proofreaders to tell the author that to immediately retract a statement is a waste of the reader's time and attention? The poor organization, grammar, and phrasing were not what I expect in a book of this price from a major publisher. The technical content is acceptable, given the implicit target audience of hobbyists. The processor architecture diagrams, though, are of a type meant for those who study or design processors. They are mostly useless for software/firmware developers who are more interested in the conceptual machine than how data flows through the ALU.
Rating: 
Summary: Technical Elements Competent; Writing Almost Unreadable
Review: The author is obviously very experienced in PIC system design. I hesitate to recommend this book for a beginner, however. The author sometimes seems to write for a beginner, then on the next page seems to require substantial prior programming experience. Unfortunately, the book is spoiled by the author's inability to write clear English. The publisher - Tab/McGraw-Hill - appears to have put this book into print without any attempt to untangle the author's many grammatical errors. The authors flippancy and carelessness with language comes across as a disrespect for the reader. Examples: "I'm a bottoms-up kind of guy" ; "some people will get extremely obnoxious and will give you lectures on the baud rate vs data rate" ; "Actually, I lied" ; "I don't know if I'm just being anal retentive."
| 
