Program via serial port

Currently I program via a M-M USB cable to the cortex. The new programmer appears to be a USB to serial adapter. My PC has a “real” RS232 serial port so I don’t have to mess with USB drivers for serial communcations. Can I program using that port? If it’s simply a serial connection, if I had the pinouts for the program port I could easily make a cable.

Alas, VEX tech support says it can’t be done this way so I ordered teh special programming cable.