Actually I have a ICSP on my development board. The problem is the only port available for the user is portb and porta but i need access to portc for pwm functionality. All the other ports are connected to LED's, LCD, 4*4 keyad, pots, rtc, USB controller and the lot. So I can't use port c, port e or port d.
Thats why I need a board that has the bare minimum so the controller can work and easy access to all the ports.
And my development board doesn't have a ZIF socket. It is so tight on my development board I have to use a screw driver as a wrench to remove it, if I want to use it outside the development board. And like you said, it is hard to do that everytime and bad for the controller too.
The 16f877a is the only one I have right now with me. And if I go ahead and buy another one it will take 2 weeks atleast to get here.