Ok, I've read all over in the FAQ's etc about API's but i dont understand what they do.
Is there a basic turtorial to get one of these running?

This is what i wanted to do:

Make a program in VB, that interacts with a terminal emulated program.
I wanted to be able to just type in a "Order number" hit "go or search" and it does all the functions like i was in the terminal program it self.
I wont be updating records etc, i just want the information out of the info.
Here is a screen shot.