[1.6.4]Redstone help

I cannot help but notice the javadoc seems to be down and I am requesting knowledge on how to:

1.) get a redstone signal from a specific face at least basic know

2.) send a redstone signal from a specific face

and 3.) change the texture of a face based on a redstone signal sent/recieved.

my goal is to make 6 new logic blocks:

AND logic, OR logic, XOR logic, NAND logic, NOR logic, and XNOR logic.

a NOT logic block is really unnecessary due to the redstone torch being an inverter.

The textures have already been made in gimp 2.8

I have knowledge of C/C++ and C-like languages such as Perl, PHP, Javascript, and Java, I just need to know what type is used for objects carrying a redstone signal and how to import/export from a block side the minecraft way.  Once I have the signal, I can add the code that does its work inside a custom method, if need be, or within a specific method.

Thanks reading my request.  A response would be nice.