Since 8052 is my biggest "walking stick" in efforts to raise from "crawling to walking" it is only fair to say a few words from a newbie experience with it.

8052 is an excellent source of information if you abide to a few simple rules.

0) Start from the beginning. Try FAQ, try Tutorial, Read and Learn... I'll compliment here on SBC since it was of a tremendous help in understanding basics of '8052 system' design and constructing a working "playground".

1) Try to search. I admit, it's search engine produces enormous amount of "misleads" due to repetitive nature of newbie's questions and "thread astrays" from original questions, but "gold" is usually hidden somewhere beneath this pile of information.

2) Actually read the newsletter. Even if topic is not something of immediate interest to reader it can bear significant "side-knowledge". (for example: first mention of "the bible" I've picked up was in some discussion of remote interest to me, or possibly flawed "RC" reset approach was something I was totally unaware of, etc).

3) Try to do it by yourself (with no "short-cuts"). So far (probably due to simplicity of problems I've encountered as a newbie), this approach is working fine. With no time limit (set by the boss or teacher) one can exercise luxury of read-think-try-fix approach. So, if it's not in the bible, datasheet or on the net, it's probably not a newbie question after all... Or, to put it another way, after exhausting all possible options you are far more likely to ask a decent question (and consequently to get a decent answer).

Code snippets and examples are (in my humble opinion) best sources of information after "official" sources. To see an example of critical parts of implementation of specific issues usually resolves questions that are left unanswered after reading extensive (or too sparse) explanation in datasheet.

One thing that a newbie can have troubles with is obtaining the datasheets. I've stumbled across more than a few interesting links following the newsletters, and some of happened to be of more than a 'thread' interest.

Just a thought, maybe to separate Tutorial into parts levelled by difficulty. So, to have 'beginners' corner and 'intermediate' corner. One type of newbies comes with no knowledge of general 8051 system and electronics at all (how to wire a working micro, what the heck is crystal, how do you burn program, etc), but there is also another group that know the difference between GND and Vcc, but has a specific (also newbie-common) problem, such as LCD interface or IIC (or one-wire bus) or some stuff like that in mind (usually when a person is involved with embedded systems for the first time but with some level of technical background)... It seems there is a gap between current tutorial/faq and experienced forum users.

One last thing, I've noticed how angry (understandable) old forum wolves become when a "new-oh-so-many-times-discussed" question arises again, or when OP asks vague or technically illiterate question. It may not be a much of a satisfaction, but even so as it looks as a complete waste of time, it often serves a good purpose, since (from my point of view), I've learned a lot from questions OP was asked by 'the old boys', even if OP never returned to answer them again! The questions often reflect a certain thought process experts tend to exercise when address a problem... Just for the record - it is NOT a waste of time. A careful reader can benefit from those seemingly 'dead' ends.

Sorry, for the long (hello world) post,

CN