MikroElektronika Forum

Lately, I've been trying to get the most out of my 16F887 PIC, but some people tell me that if I want to make any significant progress, then I should learn how to "control" the microcontroller using assembly language, because that way "I could go deeper" into what it really is and what it can actually do.

So, could anyone please tell me a good list of pros and cons about only using C language and only using assembly language when it comes to really understand and exploit the different functionalities of the microcontroller?

Short and quick:

Assembly - provides the most control of the hardware as the code is the lowest level short of writing raw machine code. With assembly you can optimize the use of the MCU more than any other method

C - while it doesn't offer the highest of optimization as assembly itself, it generally allows you to optimize most programs enough (unless precise timing is needed). C is easier to read and understand by others. It also has a larger code base as most c code can move from one MCU to another.