Easy Questions, Easy Answers...

I am attempting to program an editor to modify values within a running
application's memory.

I just have a few quick and simple questions:

1.  How would I determine what applications are currently running
and     the section of memory each is using?
2.  What classes/procedures should I use to access this memory
(reading     and writing)? {I would appreciate any code examples.}
3.  Where could I obtain a thorough tutorial on component creation?

Thank you for your time,

C. Brown