serial, parallel and USB port

[simon place]

totally agree, python great for this sort of thing, i guess its cross platform 
hardware things that are the problem,

but another way to solve this is to use sockets ( standardized ) to 
communicate with a comm server running on the same machine ( or elsewhere ), ( 
i've seen a couple already available for serial ports on a PC.) this way you 
have, clear hardware separation, you can easily simulate hardware, debug 
version easier and remote control.