Well, I think the posts above are already pretty helpful!
Seriously, no-one's going to hold your hand through the software development process, but if you're stuck, you could explain the problem and perhaps someone will suggest a solution.
The links given by Maluk point to some good learning resources. Another idea would be to find an open source chat client, and examine how it's written.
Remember, a chat client has to connect to something - it can't just float around on it's own. What servers do you need to connect to? ICQ? AIM? MSN? Looking at their respective clients may help the dev process.
<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please tell us if our suggestion has helped[/li][li]need some help? faq581-3339[/li][/ul]