Yeah, what we're dealing with here is not the interface to a "RFID-reader" but to the complete "RFID-radio". I have not looked at any example code for other platforms but I would expect it to be a fairly complicated setup procedure, configuring all the registers etc - and even more so KNOWING what to configure them with. And when Richard says HE cringes when looking at the code for it I don't think I'll even bother :-)

There are readers available implementing both the "radio" and a microcontroller giving you an interface to "just" the card and not the complete "radio" tranceiver - much easier but a bit more expensive. One example is the OEM/MIFARE ICODE board from IBTechnology (datasheet) which I've personally used with success.