Hello. I'd like to get into using microcontrollers for a Robot Project.

My buddy, who programs PICs in assembly says "C is for Sissies" and that I should only use assembler, but C looks easier to me than assembler.

Why is C considered a such wimpy language compared to assembler?

As always, it depends.
C is a very comfortable way to make programs more portable then they are in assembler. On the other hand assembler can be more powerful as C.

Bigger projects will benefit of the abstraction level in C. And at least C programmers are faster then assembler programmers.

For roboters things will be complex, so I think C is the best way. To access hardware take a look at the procyon lib (as mentioned above).

Robert

Learn c.

If you want to optimize use the c compiler to output assembly.

Then hand hack.

Use tools!