You guys seem to have a good background in arm
The trouble is I'll bet almost nobody here actually programs the "ARM" as such, with the exception of the NVIC we deal with chip's peripherals which are different for every manufacturer. (OK don't ping me if you're an ARM assembly expert :))
FWIW I use the LPCXpresso and having a full debugger is fantastic, I know I've written a lot of code over the years without one but damned if I know how 
Rob