I've been looking into writing some MacTCP apps in C, and for me, the streams interface to MacTCP has been the hardest part. I'm not real keen on learning a new interface that isn't connect().

there are a few libraries that emulate a socket interface to MacTCP. Simple Sockets and GUSI (Grand Unified Socket Interface) both come to mind, but I didn't ever get anywhere with them.

Just learning to use the silly MacTCP streams is probably better than using a socket layer.