stacks interacting over LAN? (newbie)

[kweto]

Hello All,

What I have in mind is somehow "connecting" two stacks that are running on
separate computers over a small LAN so that they interact with each other in
real time. For example, a student clicks on a button representing the letter
"A" on her computer's stack and, immediately, another student on a separate
computer's stack sees that same letter appear as well as hears a
corresponding sound file.

Now, rather than expecting an entire scripting solution (to which I of
course would not say "no"!), I'd just like some pointers in the right
direction. Where in the documentation can I learn more? What sample stacks
are there that I might tinker with? In the past I've (barely!) managed to
incorporate SQL functions into separate stacks running on a LAN, but that
was "simply" to read/write data from/to a common text file. I have no idea,
however, how to make one stack "aware" of and "reactive" to, for example,
mouse-events or global variables that are initiated by another stack.
Sockets? Pipes? Is this so complex that I'd better just give up now??

Thanks for listening.

Cheers,
Nicolas Cueto
niconiko language school (Japan)