Tips on getting started communicating with a device (dgt chessboard) via USB and displaying fancy 2D graphics
<p>I've agreed to write a graphical display program for the DGT chessboard used in UK chessboxing competitions.  The current display is designed for basic functionality rather than crowd-pleasing entertainment so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to jazz things up a little with my own version...</p>

<p>While I've designed graphical applications before, I've not really done anything with USB devices and am unsure where to start.  I've managed to get some drivers and can run the manufacturer's test program but am not sure where to go next or how to get started.  There is documentation for the driver on the DGT website but my C++ is extremely rusty (never used a dll) and I'm not quite sure how to translate this into other languages (got fired from the only c++ job I ever had within 6 months... ):</p>

<p>Sooo.... I'm thinking the way forward may be to write a very simple c++ program which takes input from the DGT driver DLL and "broadcasts" the piece positions and clock data somehow in a nice, easy to use format.  Then, I'll have an Air app which can listen to these broadcasts and update its whizz-bang graphics accordingly.  Only reason I'm going with Air is that the most recent graphical stuff I've done was in Flashpunk, which I rather like to use.  If anyone has any good reasons why I should look in to something else, then I'd be happy to do so.  </p>

<p>[edit] looks like I lost half of my original post somehow (the bit with the actual question!), will try to remember the rest and rewrite it below here: [/edit]</p>

<p>My main question is: what's the best way for a Flash/Air app to receive messages from the c++ boradcast app?  Sockets?  Reading/writing to a file?  Exposing a function somehow?</p>
