As far as I know they can all be programmed from the front panel. Some things to keep in mind, though. These radios do not have the same user interface as many scanners.I haven't used them all by any means, I have Yaesu and Kenwood mobiles and Yaesu and Icom handhelds. On the ones I have used, the manual programming is a real pain, some more than others. There is no handy front panel lockout. If you get a noisy channel while scanning, you'll have to go into the menu to skip that channel. To "me" selecting/setting up scan banks has been a real pain with all of my ham radios, I guess if I did it more often I'd get the hang of it.
I originally setup the Yaesu to scan local pd/fd/ems and to use as a ham transceiver. I have since installed a dedicated scanner(996t) and dedicated the ham radios to just ham radio.
If you do decide to go with a ham radio for scanning, make sure you get one that does wide band receive. Most dual band (maybe all) have wide band receive, just make sure whatever you get does. As for programming software, some have it for free download others don't. Don't expect an easy usb, serial cable connection for programming by pc, most need some sort of special connector and/or level converter. Also, the programming software user interface is usually not as friendly as scanner programming software.
If you're on a budget and need a "do-all" radio and plan on getting your ham license, then by all means go ahead and get the ham radio. If you just want to scan and have no plans for going after the license then I'd definitely suggest a dedicated scanner or receiver over the ham radio.
jeff.