Aurangzeb said it was difficult to get the chip you are suggesting. You suggest other chips that probably are as equally hard to get. How do you explain that?
I have worked in countries where e.g. it was worse than pulling teeth to get Motorola chips, but the TI distributor was always very helpful. Most countries where the parts are through distributors the availibilty of a given brand is either excellent or the opposite.
Charles, since you know so much, how many countries have you tried to buy parts in, I can list 8 without even thinking.

How about the knowledge Auragzeb would gain by working on the programmer and getting it to work. How much of a price tag would you put on that?
$0.00 since he probably never will build a programmer again.

Erik