
To assist others like myself who are novices at this type of thing,
I have included the following references that you should scan and
for some applications read very well - several times. Unix and Linux
way of handling serial ports is pretty easy once you get into the
correct frame of mind.

So in order of my personal preferences have a look at:

Advance Porgramming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens
Chapter 11 - Terminal I/O & Chapter 12 - Advance I/O especially.
ISBN 0-201-56317-7 (An excellent book) 

Other Open Source serial programs like minicom.

The Linux HOWTO - Programming the Serial Ports - available at any
Linux mirror site and probably already on your Linux CD.

Programming for the Real World - POSIX.4 by Bill O. Gallmeister
ISBN 1-56592-074-0

