Using serial Communications with Leonardo board

the only thing that document shows is the C compiler but it does not say what C development environment to use.

I figured by now some one would have already tackled 9 bit serial that could be adapted for what I need
Also I the device I am doing the 9 bit protocol only responds when the host polls it.

What is a good way to detect the first byte sent from the host, so I the arduino code does not accidentally set an address bit in the middle.
Also for polling the device I have to send out 2 bytes (80 and 81 hex) with the 9bit set.

I am wondering would it be better to have the arduino do that polling, instead of the PC