Thread: Device Programming?

I'm looking to make a robot with an onboard laptop for brains (this may sound stupid/crazy, but its a school project). I figure this would be the best place to post this question. Anyways, I planned on using USB/serial ports to connect sensors/motors to the computer, but have no idea where to start with the programming or how to approach this. I assume its possible just because printers and scanners both do these kinds of I/O. I'm not looking for code or anything, just dirrection. I have considerable experience in c++ console/win32 and even a little socket programming, but have never attempted to write a program to control an external device using a physical port. Even just the vague name of a topic to google would help. Thanks.
-Matt

This should be a good start. Thanks

Actually after reading the info on the site, thats not quite what I was looking for. Rather than communicating to external devices with a driver, I was wondering if it was possible to make the laptop the device. Is it possible to control the state of individual pins in a port?

Thanks for the suggestion, I might end up going in that direction. Originally I wanted to use a laptop because I have an old one and I thought it would make it a simpler process if there was a way to just use its ports.