Although quite off-topic I would like to add some comments to the previous posts.

Using the PC parallel port for other things than printing is quite feasible in Windows (even in XP, W2000 and NT) but requires additional software to by-pass the problem of not being able to directly communicate with the computer's hardware. For many programming environments code snippets and/or drivers to establish this can be found on the Internet (have a look at Programmers Heaven for instance).

The question is, however, if this is the proper way to go for "us developpers". Obviously, Microsoft has forced us all into the direction of using their ugly child and many of us believe that looking at their Teletubbieland default desktop background will have to make us happy (the picture is actually not a coincidence: at Microsoft, everybody has to believe the rest of the world is completely infantile). So if your application has to be a commercial success and you can't sell it with your own "dedicated PC" to run it on, there is actually no other way to go. On the other hand: there are alternatives, especially if the software you make will only be used by yourselves.

So what are these alternatives? If you love graphics, high-tech MMI's, mouse-pointers and stuff, consider installing Linux with X-Windows on an old PC and use it for your 8052's sparring partner. You can access the computers hardware directly, without the hassle of strange workarounds to bypass problems that are actually created by Microsoft. However, you still carry around the burdon of a huge overhead in environment-size and consequent low execution speed, and you may find in the end that Linux, too, can be brought to its knees quite easily, or at least more easy than we are led to believe.

So my suggestion for the dish-of-the-day is to consider the already given option of using good-old DOS: it's freely available from the Internet these days (at least: FreeDOS is), compact sized and even the programming tools (C-compilers, assemblers, debuggers, etc) can be fetched free of charge from the Internet. It for sure provides a better connection to your 8052 programming and even allows you to get that old 80286 of yours to start its second life! Give it a day or two and you'll learn to love it.

(No, I don't like Windows)