Constructing and sending binary data over network

Question

I am creating a command-line client for minecraft. There is a full spec on the protocol that can be found here: http://mc.kev009.com/Protocol. To answer your question before

Answer 1

off the top of my head...

const char* s;  // the string you want to send
short len = strlen(s);

// allocate a buffer with enough room for the length info and the string
char* xfer = new char[ len + sizeof(short) ];

// copy the length info into the start of the buffer
// note:  you need to hanle endian-ness of the short here.
memcpy(xfer, &len, sizeof(short));

// copy the string into the buffer
strncpy(xfer + sizeof(short), s, len);

// now xfer is the string you want to send across the wire.
// it starts with a short to identify its length.
// it is NOT null-terminated.