LOL IT'S C TIME

Hi /prog/, I have some experience with C, but I don't know how to do much except take text input, save variables, calculate, and print text out. What should I read to learn to do things like display graphics, save/load files, send/receive data using ports, et cetera?

And now, for something completely different: why did Dennis decide to have two operators, . and ->? It's not like there are cases when you can use both any of them in the same place, so why not have only .? I'm sure there was some reason behind this.