I think I am getting this AVR stuff now (thanks to help on chat channel  #AVR on irc.FreeNode.net). I still have some reading to do and parts to recieve. Much reading to do with links I have been given!

Compilers and Tools for Atmel AVR Development

PC/Win32 Software:

• Atmel AVRStudio 4.12 [#452] - Assembler and Programmer for Atmel AVR processors (Old versions: [4.10 b356] [4.08] [4.05] [3.53])
• WinAVR (2006-01-25) - C/C++ compiler and tools package for AVR processors
• PonyProg2000 2.05 - Serial/Parallel port device programmer. Programs everything from AVR processors to serial EEPROMs to PIC microcontrollers, etc.
• MTTTY Terminal Program (an alternative to HyperTerminal)
• Terminal v1.9 by Bray++ (another alternative to HyperTerminal)
• PortMon - a simple but powerful COM port activity trapper (shows you time-tagged data into and out of any COM port in ascii or hex format).

PC/Linux Software [unsupported by RSL]:

• AVR-GCC 3.2.0 (2002-07-08) - C compiler only for AVR processors
• AVR-GCC C++ 3.2.0 (2002-07-08) - C++ compiler extension for AVR processors
• AVR-binutils 2.12.90 (2002-07-08) - Binary manipulation tools needed by compiler
• AVR-libc cvs (2002-07-08) - Standard C library for AVR needed by compiler
• NOTE: these versions are quite old, newer versions available on web

Max OSX Software [unsupported by RSL]:

• AVR-GCC (2004-02-03) - C/C++ compiler and tools package for AVR processors
  (Includes gcc-3.3.2, binutils-2.14, avr-libc-1.0.2, uisp-20030618. Package originally obtained here)
• Emacs 21.3.50 for OSX 10.3 (2004-05-29) - Emacs editor for Mac OSX (good for code editing)