2 Newbie Arduino questions

string hexValue1 = decValue1.ToString("X");
Sport.Write(hexValue1);
The serial port in C# sends everything as a string.
The above statements converts 300 into hexvalue 12C then sends it out the serial port as a string.
Are there any good examples out there of serial comm with the arduino other than just basic asc values? Like a stream of serial bytes and have the arduino react off of it.
I'm getting the impression that most people don't use much serial comm with a host computer.