So the big problem for widget, gadget, browser platforms is the abstraction from the hardware. Of course, we want that, too, so the system can be cross-platform. But how do we get the gizmo data to and from the software?Probably the simplest way to do it is to write a driver which presents a TCP socket to the software platform. Firefox, widgets, gadgets, can all deal natively with TCP.

So if we use a USB serial device, such as FTDI’s FT232R, we would need to write a driver, installable on Linux, Mac and PC, which finds the virtual com port on those platforms, and channels it to a TCP socket. Then the remainder of the software could be platform-independent, Javascript even.

I’ve looked for this type of connector in the commercial software world, but no luck so far, at least not cross-platform. Here’s a nice set of tools for the Windows platform.