Hope ya dont mind, but as an old school, I think to dismiss parallel port programming is a major mistake for obvious reasons.. many robotics machines require use of the parallel form of programming rather than com port, and are still used all over the world on a grander scale than usb.. people will learn how usbjtagin works better if they know the physical hand's on experience in person to learn that gained, to simply say it is dead when it is far more powerfull a tool than a usb programmer will ever be.. which restricts the knowledge to a few chips..
Why do you think it was removed from most devices today?
It's not dead..
Parallel programming is a must for those learning to.