Great question, Neil.

As a programmer, my transitions were TRS-80 Basic, Z80, Forth, Fortran
on VAX/VMS, Cobol, C, and then UNIX, and almost every language that
the various UNIX flavours have.

I've _never_ owned a Microsoft Windows system, but once or twice did
have to target the platform professionally.  That knowledge is way out
of date, but the general principles for build tool chains can still be
followed.

1.  be wary of closed tool chains; the APIs are often faulty, never
fixed (because of the closed nature), and you can waste days on simple
things, or you are forced into relying on a user community, which can
be great if there is one and has no barriers to entry,

2.  paying for it is fine, but if you feel you'll be chasing up the
tool chain vendor with questions, don't forget to cost your time as
well as theirs, and if your initial estimate of what you'll need exceeds
the cost of the license and support, perhaps you're paying too little,

In terms of language and environment choice, the only cross-platform
language for both desktop, laptop, and handheld computers today is
JavaScript.  The language has come a long way since it first appeared,
and is now production capable.

Your application could be in two parts; one part manages the serial
connection, the other part provides the user interface.

Suitable searches; "javascript serial port".

I've not taken this path yet, but in the current market that's the
path I would size up.  I'd give myself about two weeks to do it right.

--=20
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/
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