Microcontroller development environment

In my daily job I develop software. I like my job but I don't want to spend my free time programming. So I chose a extremely simple c compiler and build environment for my electronics projects. It runs on a Pentium 1 system. The compiler is DOS turbo vision application for those old enough to remember it.

Unfortunately I can not use it for this project. It can not handle the PIC 16F877. So I have to switch to something modern. I found the HI-TEC compiler on the net. HI-TEC a free version without memory limits. Only the optimization is limited. So I will use this compiler together with MPLAB
from microchip. To program the PIC I can use the JDM programmer I bought on Ebay some time ago. However I want to program it in circuit. Fortunately the PIC16F877 can be programmed via the serial port. I found a bootloader for that. I think will try this approach.

In know the PIC can be programmed serially using 2 pins. I used them in previous 16F84 projects.
The programming software I know of uses either the serial port or the parallel port. I a afraid It won't run on XP because XP forbids low level access to the ports. Maybe I can find programming software that works under XP . Alternatively I can use the crack to enable access to the ports.

Of course I need a better PC than the Pentium 1 machine. Fortunately I have a few Pentium 3 PC's that can run XP. I hope I will be able to setup the development environment quickly. Because I want to concentrate on the application.