Pipes between lisp and C

[giarla@RAND-UNIX]

We have a simulation written in fanzlisp and would like to have it
communicate with a graphics package written in C.  Looking thru the
documentation we see that there are ways to use forks, execs, and pipes
from fanzlisp.  Before we spend too much time with false attempts and
finally create something strange are there any suggestions as to how we
might do the following...

	The user starts fanzlisp.
	The user loads the simulation environment.
	The user wants to run with the C-based graphics package.
		Two pipes are set up (bi-directional communications),
		Fork and Exec,
		The C graphics package starts and looks to the pipes
			for I/O.
	The user runs the simulation.
		The simulation runs one tick then sends via a
			pipe a collection of objects (data structures).
		When the graphics package receives the last object
			it sends back an ack.
	Many ticks later the user stops the simulation
		The user grabs the graphics tablet and positions a
			new object and sends this information back
			to the simulation...

OK!  I know the above is informal and sketchy...  Questions:  Has anyone
used franzlisp with pipes to C?  Is there an already written, niffty
franzlisp-C communications package out there in franzlisp-land?  Are there
comments about the goodness or badness of what the documentation indicates
can be done with pipes.  Are there suggestions about alternatives to using
pipes to communicate with a C program?

A humble C-graphics hacker
that has never used lisp before
Giarla...