there is no simple guide, even if many brands do use rs232, gpid, lan interfaces, gpid interfaces, fakes or genuine ones, ar488 project here on eevblog, prologix adapters, arduino based ones, raspi ...
you have IVI drivers, visa drivers, USB tmc, LXI compatible .... and you have some of their softwares, and excel macro enabled sheets, vb, c++, c#, Python etc ...
Nothing is perfect between many brands, mostly old stuff vs more recent ones
There is a few software pieces here on eevblog forums who can be useful and slightly standardize some equipment, work in progress ...
there is no definitive answers to help you, you'll have to dig and read ... and do tests
Python is lately getting more traction, compatible with many os'es ...
Even purely using usb interface, you may have to deal with incompatibilities, quirks etc ... you may not be able to read at fast rates ... sluggish responses etc ...