Slot drills - end mills

Gentlemen,

I think both the US version and the European version are correct. US "end
mills" come in 2, 3, 4, and more flukes. They also come as 'center cutting'
where they have at least one set of cutting edges that extend to the center
and will thus plunge cut as well as side cut. Others have a hole or open
area between the flukes that precludes plunging more that the depth of the
'hole'. My experience is that in the US they are all called end mills.
Referrences to slot drills only seem to crop up in non US terminology.

I have a question. My BobCad/Cam program will send a g-code to a machine
via the SERIAL port. Most controllers, mine included, work from the parallel
port. Is there a circuit board that will convert the serial data to
parallel? Will this work to drive my Maxnc controller? Years ago there was
a way in DOS to redirect one port to another, mapping I believe it's called.
I forget exactly how it's done or the commands involved. Would this send
the BobCad output out through the parallel port? Would it drive the
controller? So many questions......

PJH, N7PXY