C++ file handling is fast and easy, I find it much easier than mIRC.
ofstream out("thefile.txt");
out << "this is some text" << endl;
out << "Now a number" << 10 << endl;
out.close();
Is that really so bad?
And as for sockets, you can either get a stream-based socket class (there are a bunch available), or you can *gasp* use .NET
