I started writing a communications API to communicate with the RoboRIO. This is an attempt to separate the communications code from RoboDS, but it can be used for any custom driverstation projects you want. The library is written in Java but can be ported pretty easily to other languages.
Just note that though the API is complete and should be functional, it has not been tested at all on a real RIO device, it has only been tested with my loopback interface. The API only supports the new 2015 version of the communications protocol, but I hope others can expand it to work with the earlier protocol.
Here is the repo, it is in the form of an eclipse project so you should be able to download it and import it directly into eclipse:
https://github.com/raystubbs/RioComAPI