I hope you recall that he initially mentioned that DS89C430 that he's using in his class. That has on-chip serially programmable FLASH program memory and 1 kByts of on-chip XRAM, in addition to the standard 8052 features and a bunch of additonal non-standard ones. With an oscillator, a MAX232A, and any one of the chips from that family, he'll have all he needs to create simple programs.

While I don't consider attaching external memory particularly difficult, I do agree that it's going to provide considerably more risk of error. However, if he's determined to use that ROMless part, an external nonvolatile memory is a reasonable thing to consider.

I totally agree with you, that he should start SIMPLE but learning to use JTAG is probably no easier than learning to use a monitor. Since he's determined to use those DIL-40 packaged parts (even if he uses 'em in PLCC) there'll be no JTAG option.

It will be a bit cheaper, though, to use a DS89C450 sample, a packaged oscillator (rather than a crystal, so he can't miswire or otherwise commit error on the oscillator), and a MAX232A will let him start SIMPLE than by buying SiLabs hardware and learning to operate it, and to operate the JTAG tool set.

RE