Microchip dev tools are free. An ICD 3 isn't, but they're relatively inexpensive. Not sure, but I think the latest MPLAB-X is Eclipse. I have no complaints wit

Microchip dev tools are free. An ICD 3 isn't, but they're relatively inexpensive. Not sure, but I think the latest MPLAB-X is Eclipse. I have no complaints with them. Atmel AVR will redesign things out from under you. We could not get a new JTAG interface to work with an old chip.