Controlling A Playlist With Android Phone via Bluetooth

[ohmartn]

Hi All,

I am a new programmer so please go easy on me. I am wondering if it is possible to program my Android phone and VLC so that I can use my phone as a remote controller to control a playlist that I am playing on VLC (on my PC).

As a preface, I have a reasonable grasp of C/C++, object oriented programming, python, and java. I have very little experience working with a (comparatively) large program like VLC, and zero experience working with transferring information over networks or bluetooth.

Taking the simplest case of skipping to the next song using my Android platform, my plan was to write a .txt on my phone with a "0" or "1". This would then be passed to my PC over Bluetooth. I would alter the VLC source code to be continuously checking this .txt file while playing a song. If it reads "1" then it skips to the next song and writes "0" to the file.

Is this method absurd? Is the method I proposed the best way to accomplish what I want (controlling a playlist with my phone)? I think I am probably capable of all the steps I outlined except the part where I get VLC to read a text file. Where would I start with the source code if I wanted VLC to be reading a .txt file while it was playing music? Are there resources you can suggest to help me learn about accomplishing simple tasks like this?

Thank you very much in advance. Any advice is surely appreciated.
Regards.