I decided to write this program using python, as I've heard many great things about python.

Here are the packages I'm using:
- pyserial http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/
- matplotlib http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/
- enstaller http://code.enthought.com/enstaller/


I grabbed pserial from the project page.

Matplotlib is a little different, I opted to download a package from Enthought (the enstaller) which will give me a graphical front end to install some handy python modules.

I followed the "Quick Installation Instructions" @ http://code.enthought.com/enstaller/

Making sure to add the appropriate python directories to my environment path in windows:






After that, load up a command line window and type 'enstaller'

this should load the gui



C:\Users\andrew>echo %PATH%
C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;c:\Python25;c:\Python25\scripts

C:\Users\andrew>
C:\Users\andrew>enstaller
enstaller - version 2.2.0b3 on Python 2.5

Reading http://code.enthought.com/enstaller/eggs/windows/xp...Starting the Enstaller GUI...


At this step I selected to install the following packages:
- matplotlib
- numpy
- scipy
- wxPython

Afterthought: it may be better to install these packages manually..