Unzip winpicpr.zip and install WinPic. Put the RobotIII.ini file (from the class website) in directory C:"Program Files"\WinPic\interfaces\. (It must be in the interfaces directory and nowhere else for it to work.) You can load a .hex file into it and program your chip accordingly. See the file "instructions" for the details. Use the file toggle.hex as the .hex file to program your chip to blink the LED.
Execute the gputils-0.13.6.exe file and install gputils. If you go to a directory in which you have a copy of toggle.asm and then give the command
gpasm toggle.asmgpasm will produce several files, one of which is toggle.hex, the file with the same name that appears on the class website.
[The following is dated. If you find a better programmer for Linux with programming through the serial port, let me know.]
If you are running Linux, I have found two programmers that you might try:
jpp877v05-bin.zip prog84-2.3.3.tar.gzThe first one, jpp877, is a program written in Java. The binaries should be ready to run if you have Java on your machine. The second one, prog84, is a programmar for the 16f84 that has been modified to handle 16f876 chips as well. It is written in C and will have to be compiled before use. If you get either of these running, contact me and tell me what options it gives for resetting the pins that the various signals go to. We'll figure out together how to use them. If neither of these can be made to work, we may have to modify a programmer for the 16f84, much as I did a few years ago. (There may be more up-to-date versions of these programmers on the Internet.)
As for assemblers, there is a Linux version of the GPUTILS file at sourceforge.net. There is also source code for an assembler called picasm at www.iki.fi/trossi/pic/. It is written in Ansi C, so it should compile on Linux or Unix.
For programming in a high level language, try jal0440.zip. This is the dos/windows version. An older version is jal0435.tgz. I am hoping that this one will work on Linux. Both of these files are in my ~chester directory on the composers. [SDCC should also be available for Linux.]