Not IRC related at all. It's hardware control over TCP/IP. Here's a example using the C code. There is an IPConnection object that handles all the TCP/IP stuff. Then there is a Temperature object that represents a temperature sensor. To interact with the temperature sensor the example creates an IPConnection object and a Temperature. The Temperature object will then use the IPConnection for its communication needs.

Getter Functions

Now to read the temperature of the sensor you just call temperature_get_temperature. This internally sends a request to the hardware asking for the current temperature. Then the sensor sends a response back containing the current temperature. During this message exchange the temperature_get_temperature blocks while waiting for a response. There is also a timeout mechanism. If the sensor doesn't respond within 2.5 sec then temperature_get_temperature will report an error.

#include <stdio.h>

#include "ip_connection.h"
#include "bricklet_temperature.h"

#define HOST "localhost"
#define PORT 4223
#define UID "XYZ" // Change to your UID

int main() {
    // Create IP connection
    IPConnection ipcon;
    ipcon_create(&ipcon);

    // Create device object
    Temperature t;
    temperature_create(&t, UID, &ipcon); 

    // Connect to brickd
    if(ipcon_connect(&ipcon, HOST, PORT) < 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not connect\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    // Don't use device before ipcon is connected

    // Get current temperature (unit is °C/100)
    int16_t temperature;
    if(temperature_get_temperature(&t, &temperature) < 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not get value, probably timeout\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    printf("Temperature: %f °C\n", temperature/100.0);

    printf("Press key to exit\n");
    getchar();
    ipcon_destroy(&ipcon); // Calls ipcon_disconnect internally
}
[download]

Just this getter mechanism alone would work without any threads, you only have to receive data during a getter call. If no getter is called no data will arrive from the hardware.

There seems to be a post size limit, so to be continued ...