5.2 MPLAB Following the installment procedure, you will get a screen of the program itself. As you can see, MPLAB looks like most of the Windows programs. Near working area there is a "menu" (upper blue colored area with options File, Edit..etc.), "toolbar" (an area with illustrations the size of small squares), and status line on the bottom of the window. There is a rule in Windows of taking some of the most frequently used program options and placing them below the menu, too. Thus we can access them easier and speed up the work. In other words, what you have in the toolbar you also have in the menu. The screen after starting the MPLAB The purpose of this chapter is for you to become familiar with MPLAB developing environment and with basic elements of MPLAB such as: Choosing a developing mode Designing a project Designing a file for the original program Writing an elementary program in assembler program language Translating a program into executive code Starting the program Opening a new window for a simulator Opening a new window for variables whose values we watch (Watch Window) !saving a window with variables whose values we are watching Setting the break points in a simulator (Break point) Preparing a program to be read in a microcontroller can boil down to several basic steps: