[botmeister]

I'm having fun programming Windows apps in ANSI C, without ever using the Microsoft Classes

Since you are programming in C, you could share at least a library of general routines between your job coding and your bot coding. You may as well double up the effort if you can, that's what I'm trying to do. The only C++ work I can do for $ at the moment will be in Linux, so I'm converting everything I did for the mEAn mod to work with Linux and then I'm writing a generalized library that can be used for any project (both windows and linux). Meanwhile the regular work I do for $ is written in the SQL database world, so it does not apply back and forth. I'd much rather be doing C++ work, so the push is on.

ps good idea not to use the MS classes because your code won't be easily portable otherwise.