i said that maplin was crap, not what you said
when i bought my pic 16f84a a few weeks ago i got their last one, now when i went yesterday they still hadent got any in stock, it was the same with 0.1in. pin strip, i bought their last one, i think it is terrible, when they do have stock, it is only ever 1 or 2

 

it says how to control it by using a basci stamp what ever the hell that is, but not how to control it via a pc program, i dont have the right .OCXs to update the visual basic project

 

You did seem to be complaining about having a 16F84a instead of the not recommended for new designs 16F84. I did reread your post and the adjective did apply to maplin.

Turn the problem around and tell me how many of each of the millions of possible products you would keep in stock. Do you have any concept of what it takes to run a "stocking" distributor? A million parts at 0.10 cents each is still $100,000. For each additional part in each bin it costs another 100,000.

 

they do not ask if they can get it in stock for you, if they did, then it would be more bearable, but they don't.
alright i wouldn't expect them to do it with all the ICs but with something so widely used like pin strip i would expect them to get in, although the 16f84 is one of the most commonly used pic there is

 

Next time you are in Maplin's store, just out of curiosity, check to see if they carry the ATMEL AVR line of microcontrollers (e.g. ATTINY2313 and ATMEGA16).

hgmjr

 

you can check if they have them on their website maplin.co.uk

 

A quick check of the website and I came up empty-handed.

hgmjr