Thanks ALM,
I understand the TL866A is going to be operating at a lower level than than say the Arduino IDE; I'm just challenging myself to see if I can figure out the TL866A (and the general environment of such a programmer). In the process I'd like to find the intersection between what can be done from the PC with the Arduino IDE (or maybe with WinAVR or Atmel Studio) and what can be done with the TL866A and the software that comes with the TL866A. It's like I've been reading about Rome for a long time and I'm ready to go on site seeing tour.

I saw this thread that seems to be touching on some similar questions:
http://forum.pjrc.com/threads/19212-Better-alternative-to-arduino-IDEI think I'm on a different path than many users here who have lots of skill and experience and who use test equipment largely to test, design, debug, build, etc. I use the equipment almost entirely as a "learning platform". With a small power supply, a couple DMMs, a scope, a couple breadboards, some parts, and a few other things I can tinker, hypothesize, test, figure out (slowly) what works and what doesn't, what causes what and what doesn't. It's a journey more than a specific destination although I have a few small objectives that I hope to accomplish as I get a few things figured out. For starters, I want to prove I can learn/understand, configure and control analog circuits well enough to (among other things) convert A to D to encode specific bit streams and then (with a scope and a serial decoder) I want to prove I can decode my home made bit streams. Along the way I'm trying to learn to harness the notion of pullup and pulldown resistors - I know, pretty basic. (The other day I managed to follow a circuit diagram (not just a fritzing illustration) to make some stuff happen with a 555; it worked on the second try and I was pleasantly surprised.)
Beyond this 101 stuff I'm trying to not only experience the intersection between analog and digital but also gain some hands-on experience with how basic analog circuits and functions get embedded and accessed and managed on chips. In 102 or 201 I hope to figure out how to work with I2C and SPI. JTAG entirely fascinates me. No doubt, I see a ton of hardware, firmware, and software learning ahead on the "hands-on" road from analog to digital.
One of the reasons I'd like a highly dependable power supply is that I'd like to know that the values I'm seeing when working with the fundamentals (volts and amps along with ohms and watts) are pretty reliable so I don't have to wonder if it's my calculations or the gear that's causing a different than expected result (I'm steadily working my way thru stuff like burden voltage.) In general, to help avoid errors and confusion I like my rulers to be accurately ruled so as to help avoid this:

(And of course I'd like a power supply that protects my other gear, DUTs, and generally keeps me safe.)
So .... back to the TL866A, the TL866A might (metaphorically) be a diving board to help learn what goes on in the deep end

To me, this forum is a gateway to a huge amount of learning opportunities. It is a great place with lots of deluxe people and I appreciate all the info and advice.
EF