Does anyone know how to program serial ports?

I'm new to programming and I am wondering the best way to use the serial port to recieve inputs from 3 simple circuits. All I have to do is to know which circuits have been completed and in what order they where completed in. This is for a knowledge bowl type of situation with three teams. Also can we recieve the inputs through the different pins of the serial port or do I have to make some hardware that gives each strip a different binary number. Any help would be much appreciated. thank you in advance.

Are yoyu trying to Interface the Computer .I ince developed a program ib VB where you attached the Computer qwith a bredBoadr and light bulb using the KeyBoard.Are you asking for such a kind of thing.If yes then I can send you my file

What I'm doing is hooking up three "switches" to the serial port, each in a different circuit. They'll draw some power from one of the pins in the serial port and ground to another. But each switch will be hooked to a different pin so that when a circuit is completed the electric current will go into a certain pin, and somehow I'll be able to tell which pin the circuits have been completed and in which order they where completed.

Does that make sense? Anyway you look at it, I'd appreciate it if you sent me the file and maybe explained wat the different properties mean and how they're used. Thank you very much for the help. I appreciate it a lot.

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