programming practices with regard to gtk and networking

[Ken Nagorski <kenn refriedgeeks com>]

Hi there,

I just started working with GTK. I have a some background with C which 
means I can do OK but when it comes to working with the two together it 
gets harder...
My question is really this. I have a very simple IM program that I wrote 
in java (had to take a class on it) and I started porting the application 
to C and GTK but here is where I run into a problem. I have a button that 
says connect. and when clicked it creates the connection all that works 
fine, however unlike calling a normal function I can't really pass data 
back from the function the button called. Can I... What I need to do is 
somehow create the connection when the button is clicked and then pass the
sockfd to the calling part of the programming (main) so I can then use 
that in the calls to send().
What I really need is someone to point me in the right direction.

Thanks alot
Ken