rs232 communication

[hfbroady]

I would like to write a C++ program to communicate (via rs232) with a temperature oven. I will be using a USB to RS232 adapter. I have never done any serial communication so this is my first trip down this road. I need to setup the serial port on my PC (need the syntax and code) also I need to send commands to the oven and read commands from the oven too.

I'm using the IDE (Code::Blocks) with the GNU GCC Compiler, probably a console applicarion, maybe a Win32 application haven't decided yet. I just need the basics I will try and figure out the rest. Any help in this matter would be great.

What I have read from MANY google searchs is that the serial (rs232) communication is similiar to reading and writing to a file. Just need to know how to set everything up.

Thanks any and everyone!!