Hi Charles,

With C or C++ you can program the uart pretty much as if you were using assembler. First initialize the uart and timers, for example:
/* Initialize T1 for baud rate generator */
TMOD = (TMOD & 0x0F) | 0x20; /* timer 1 mode 2 */
SCON = 0x50; /* uart mode 1 */
PCON = 0x00; /* SMOD = 0 */
TCLK = RCLK = 0; /* not using T2 */

TR1 = 0; /* stop timer */
TH1 = TL1 = 0xFD; /* 9600 baud */
TR1 = 1; /* restart timer */

ES = 1; /* enable sio int */

(Sorry, the comments wrapped around, not as readable as on my editor).

Then either create a serial interrupt service routine or simply poll the RI/TI flags. A simple ISR:

interrupt [0x0023] void SCON_int (void)
{
if (TI)
{
TI = 0; /* reset flag */
SBUF = next_character_to_send;
}
if (RI)
{
RI = 0;
received_character = SBUF;
}
}

The 8051 C compilers I've seen have pre-defined header files for registers and such.

Good luck!

Dennis