> Do all of these things really need a separate program?

Indeed. This is one of the reasons why the unixy "One app does one thing" philosophers dislike the C++ language so much. C++ is built for creating precisely the kind of apps you are describing - Classes are a well-defined compartment or component that does this "one thing" business while the app co-ordinates their working towards a common good.

C, on the other hand, pertains much to their "one thing" philosophy and they like it very much.