Unix API ?

I have no clue where to start.
Im familiar w. C/C++

How would I go about this.
Using C or C++ to interact w. other windows/ programs.

ie:

If i wanted to create an irc bot.
Have a bot sit online in a chat room running *****X or xchat or any irc client. View each line sent to chat by others, and then responded accordingly.
How would I go about doing that?

I believe in Windows I would use the Win32 api calls such as FindWindowEx etc etc.
What about in Unix ?

Thank you

If you are interested in writing an IRC bot, I suggest downloading the Eggdrop IRC bot and reviewing the source code (try searching for it at freshmeat.net).

Cheers,

My question was in general.

Using my program to deal w. other programs i/o.

You're going to have to read up on fork and exec (doing a man on either one will tell you something of what you need to know), and then you'll need to study interprocess communication.

Yes, it is do-able, but it can also be a bit tricky. Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment (Stevens) is probably one of the most detailed and in-depth guides you can find on these topics. Beginning Linux Programming (Wrox Press) also talks about it a little, if you're looking for a book. Ageneral lesson is a little too complicated to get in to here though.

starX
www.axisoftime.com

This has some good stuff on unix programming
http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/C/CE.html