ISP connection at circuit and other little questions

[tim10243]

hi,

i am starting to build my own spot now. while studying the circuit
diagram i was wondering what "ISP" could be. after a little time i
found out, that it must be the connection to the computer to program
the atmega, right? if i do the programming outside the spot i wont
need this "ISP" connection at the spot circuit, right?

one more question: i got the atmega and the optocoupler here now and
try to find out which pin is number 1, number 2, .....

next question: i am thinking about building one long distance
transmitter ( only for off shore jobs ;-) of course) using a RFM12BP
instead a RFM12B. the bigger module has much more pins than the smaler
one. do i connect the RFM12BP using just the same pins as i would have
used with at the RFM12B and leave the rest blank?

thanks

tim

[Gasman]

ISP = In service/system programmer/ing, I believe. No you don't need
to expose these pins and you can program a microcontroller off the
final board BUT if you want to update the software it makes matters a
great deal simpler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-System_Programming

JP