For my graduation project I have been charged with a kind of Winboard interface consisting in a 16-keys heyboard (1,2,..7,8, a,b,..g,h) to enter moves to the PC through the serial port in long algebraic format, and a 8 digits display to show the outputs or moves generated by the engines...
The background goal is to play using a wooden board, but instead of watching the PC monitor, using as input/output devices the 16-keys and the display. (Supposedly, it will produce "eyes relief"

I am mainly a hardware student and programming tasks are a bit hard for me

Any help on related links to this problem or on how to start with Winboard source code would be welcome.
Anticipated thanks