What are they? and How do you use them?

Start looking for the answers to your questions. This is exactly the same as your "What is an algorithm?" question.

http://delphi.about.com/library/glossary/bldefapi.htm?terms=API

check this site http://www.mentalis.org/index2.shtml

they have lots of info on api, as well as an api viewer that you can download.

http://www.allapi.net is a great website providing examples and everything. Basically I think of an API as a system function (usually if not always contained in a .DLL file) that allows you to do it....

neo, the link i posted is the site that allapi.net redirects to.

oh...

Thanks for all the help, i worked out what i was doing wrong, hate declaring crap! anyway i now have a homer simpson head for a form!!! However i want to make something so people can connect to my PC via telnet and chat with me, any surgestions on how to do that? Neo you have done something like this, any comments?

look into the winsock controls... i found a good tutorial on it at http://www.developer.com/net/vb/article.php/1540141

i hate to be an asshole about this and i know this is a clever post but what the hell do you want with a homer simpson head form if you do not know how to use winsock controls?

maybe im just an ignorant dick for not acknowledging that you wish to learn how to code in vb but i strongly suggest you learn to write a simple client / server app with some winsock shit in order to grasp what you are confronting, nevertheless it is simple enough to do.

in other words, homer simpson like looking apps are no good when you cannot write the working code for it, forget API and move onto simple inbred stuff rather than the ADVANCED Programming Interface!

Point taken.