Annotation of libwww/Library/Overview.html, revision 1.67

1.41      frystyk     1: <HTML>
                      2: <HEAD>
1.66      frystyk     3:   <TITLE>Libwww - the W3C Sample Code Library</TITLE>
1.41      frystyk     4: </HEAD>
1.60      frystyk     5: <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
1.41      frystyk     6: <P>
1.65      frystyk     7: <A HREF="../"><IMG ALT="W3C" SRC="../Icons/WWW/w3c_home" BORDER="0" WIDTH="72"
                      8:     HEIGHT="48"></A> <IMG BORDER="0" ALT="libwww" SRC="../Icons/WWW/Lib48x">
1.41      frystyk     9: <H1>
1.66      frystyk    10:   Libwww - the W3C Sample Code Library
1.38      frystyk    11: </H1>
1.41      frystyk    12: <P>
1.66      frystyk    13: The W3C Sample Code Library (libwww) is a general-purpose Web API written
                     14: in C. It is a highly modular extensible API which can be used as the code
                     15: base for writing Web clients, servers, proxies etc. The purpose of Libwww
                     16: is to provide a reference code for HTTP and other Internet protocols and
                     17: also to serve as a generic Web API. It has a rudimentary HTML parser which
                     18: can only do the very basics. Please have a look at the
                     19: <A HREF="../Amaya/">Amaya Web client</A> for a HTML browser/editor application
                     20: and <A HREF="../Jigsaw/">Jigsaw server</A> for a full-blown server application.
1.56      frystyk    21: <H2>
1.65      frystyk    22:   <A HREF="../News/"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="../Icons/WWW/relnotes48x" ALT="News"
                     23:       WIDTH="48" HEIGHT="48" BORDER="0"></A> News and Updates
1.56      frystyk    24: </H2>
                     25: <H3>
1.67    ! frystyk    26:   <B><A HREF="Distribution.html">Libwww Version 5.1</A> has been released to
        !            27:   W3C members February 18</B>
1.56      frystyk    28: </H3>
                     29: <P>
1.67    ! frystyk    30: This release is a "second generation" HTTP/1.1 implementation using persistent
        !            31: connections, pipelining, smart output buffering, and persistent caching.
        !            32: It is the code base that was used in the
        !            33: "<A HREF="../Protocols/HTTP/Performance/Pipeline.html">Network Performance
        !            34: Effects of HTTP/1.1, CSS1, and PNG</A>" paper. It has been tested against
        !            35: <A HREF="../Jigsaw/">Jigsaw</A> writte and
        !            36: <A HREF="http://www.apache.org">Apache</A>.
1.41      frystyk    37: <UL>
                     38:   <LI>
1.67    ! frystyk    39:     Check out the <A HREF="User/ReleaseNotes.html">list of new features</A>
1.55      frystyk    40:   <LI>
1.62      frystyk    41:     Complete HTTP/1.1 compliant persistent cache manager
1.55      frystyk    42:   <LI>
1.67    ! frystyk    43:     Support for zlib based decompression
1.55      frystyk    44:   <LI>
1.47      frystyk    45:     Check out the new <A HREF="User/Extrnals.html">complete index of public
                     46:     function</A>
1.41      frystyk    47: </UL>
1.56      frystyk    48: <H2>
1.64      jigsaw     49:   <A HREF="../Consortium/Prospectus/ActivityList.html"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="../Icons/WWW/activity_48x48"
1.56      frystyk    50:       ALT="Activities" BORDER="0"></A> Libwww Position&nbsp;Statement
                     51: </H2>
                     52: <P>
                     53: What is the purpose of libwww? Can I use it as a developer tool for writing
                     54: Web applications? How is it supported? Read answers to these questions and
                     55: much more from the <A HREF="Activity.html">W3C position statement on
                     56: libwww</A>.
                     57: <H2>
1.58      frystyk    58:   <A HREF="../Status.html"><IMG SRC="../Icons/WWW/disk_48x48" BORDER="0" ALT="Software"></A>
                     59:   Getting the Source Code
1.56      frystyk    60: </H2>
                     61: <P>
1.66      frystyk    62: W3C Sample Code Library is covered by the <A HREF="../COPYRIGHT.html">MIT
                     63: Copyright Statement</A>, and with <A HREF="../CERN.html">acknowledgment to
                     64: CERN</A>. We only release libwww and the
                     65: <A HREF="User/Applications.html">example applications</A> as source code
                     66: - you must compile it yourself. The latest version is available in the following
                     67: formats:
1.56      frystyk    68: <UL>
                     69:   <LI>
                     70:     <A HREF="w3c-libwww.tar.Z">compressed tar file (ca. 2.1M)</A>
                     71:   <LI>
                     72:     <A HREF="w3c-libwww.tar.gz">gzip'ed tar file (ca. 1.4M)</A>
                     73:   <LI>
                     74:     <A HREF="w3c-libwww.zip">zip file (ca. 1.8M)</A>
                     75: </UL>
1.38      frystyk    76: <P>
1.56      frystyk    77: You can find old versions of the source code and diffs together with many
                     78: other things on our <A HREF="ftp://ftp.w3.org/pub/libwww/">FTP server</A>
                     79: and you can browse through the <A HREF="src/">latest source files</A> directly
                     80: on our server. A packet contains the following components:
                     81: <UL>
                     82:   <LI>
                     83:     Installation guide
                     84:   <LI>
                     85:     Source code
                     86:   <LI>
                     87:     Platform dependent make files
                     88:   <LI>
                     89:     Hypertext documentation
                     90:   <LI>
                     91:     Copyright statements and other legal mumbo jumbo
                     92: </UL>
1.38      frystyk    93: <P>
1.56      frystyk    94: You can see how to unpack and compile the software in the
                     95: <A HREF="../README.html">README</A> file, and you can find more information
                     96: on how the Library is designed in the <A HREF="User/Architecture/">Library
                     97: Architecture</A> and how to use it in the <A HREF="User/Using/">User's
                     98: Guide</A>.
1.41      frystyk    99: <H2>
1.64      jigsaw    100:   <A HREF="../INSTALL.html"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Install" SRC="../Icons/WWW/install48x"
1.58      frystyk   101:       BORDER="0"></A> Installation Guide and new Features
1.41      frystyk   102: </H2>
1.56      frystyk   103: <P>
                    104: How do I get started using libwww? How can I compile it? What has changed
                    105: in the latest release. Find out by starting here!
1.41      frystyk   106: <UL>
                    107:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   108:     <A HREF="../INSTALL.html">Installation Guide</A> for how to get started
                    109:   <LI>
1.63      frystyk   110:     <A HREF="User/Platform/">List of Platforms</A> where libwww can be used
                    111:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   112:     <A HREF="../Library/User/ReleaseNotes.html">Release Notes</A> for the latest
                    113:     release
                    114:   <LI>
                    115:     <A HREF="User/History.html">Change history</A> for older releases
                    116:   <LI>
                    117:     <A HREF="User/ToDo.html">Current Working List</A>. A highly dynamic
1.41      frystyk   118:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   119:     <A HREF="User/Patch/">Known Bugs and Patches</A> - well, the world is not
                    120:     perfect and neither is libwww. This is a list of what we already know is
                    121:     wrong.
1.41      frystyk   122:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   123:     Patches and Bug fixes - When you have modifications and want them to go into
                    124:     our code base then please fill out the form for
                    125:     <A HREF="../PATCHES.html">Corrections, Modifications, and Patches</A> and
1.62      frystyk   126:     -send it to us. Otherwise we can not use the patch!
1.56      frystyk   127: </UL>
                    128: <H2>
1.59      frystyk   129:   <A HREF="User/"><IMG SRC="../Icons/WWW/doc48x" ALT="Documentation" BORDER="0"></A>
1.62      frystyk   130:   User Documentation and Design Overview
1.56      frystyk   131: </H2>
                    132: <P>
                    133: We have a huge amount of documentation about the design &nbsp;of libwww and
                    134: how to use it for building applications. Often, however, the easiest is to
                    135: study the example applications which show in practice how to do tricks with
                    136: libwww. We try to keep the documentation up to date but it may not always
1.62      frystyk   137: be the case. The best thing is to have a look the list of exported functions.
1.56      frystyk   138: This list is generated automatically and is always up to date.
                    139: <UL>
1.41      frystyk   140:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   141:     <A HREF="User/">Documentation Overview</A>
1.41      frystyk   142:   <LI>
1.46      frystyk   143:     <A HREF="User/Style/">The libwww Programming Style Guide</A>
                    144:   <LI>
1.51      frystyk   145:     <A HREF="User/Start.html">Quick Overview</A> and <A HREF="Examples/">Easy
                    146:     Startup Examples</A>
1.50      frystyk   147:   <LI>
1.47      frystyk   148:     <A HREF="User/Extrnals.html">Complete list of public functions in libwww</A>
                    149:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   150:     <A HREF="User/Architecture/">Libwww Architecture</A> - the design overview
                    151:     of how libwww is put together
1.41      frystyk   152:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   153:     <A HREF="User/Using/">User's Guide</A> - the APIs described from a User's
                    154:     perspective
1.41      frystyk   155:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   156:     <A HREF="User/Guide/">Library Interfaces</A>- the APIs described in more
                    157:     details
1.41      frystyk   158:   <LI>
1.56      frystyk   159:     <A HREF="User/WAIS.html">Compiling for direct WAIS access</A>
                    160: </UL>
                    161: <H2>
1.59      frystyk   162:   <A HREF="../Mail/"><IMG SRC="../Icons/WWW/mail48x" ALT="Mail" BORDER="0"></A>
1.56      frystyk   163:   Mailing lists
                    164: </H2>
                    165: <P>
                    166: Libwww has the following set of mailing lists that you are more than welcome
                    167: to use! Before you send mail to the lists, please check out the archives
                    168: - they often contain good information about how to solve problems. Please
                    169: do not send mail directly to the authors - the mail load is already rather
                    170: high and you will most probably get a &nbsp;better response time by using
                    171: one of the following mailing lists.
                    172: <DL>
                    173:   <DT>
                    174:     <A HREF="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-lib/threads.html"><B>www-lib@w3.org</B></A>
                    175:   <DD>
                    176:     A <STRONG>public</STRONG> mailing list for an open discussion of ideas, diffs,
                    177:     new features etc. This is the most active list. See the
                    178:     <A HREF="../Mail/">information on mailing&nbsp;lists</A> for details on how
                    179:     to subscribe.
                    180:   <DT>
                    181:     <A HREF="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-lib-bugs/threads.html"><B>www-lib-bugs@w3.org</B></A>
                    182:   <DD>
                    183:     A <SAMP><STRONG>public</STRONG></SAMP> mailing mailing list where you can
                    184:     register bugs and ideas that you would like to get into the code base. Register
                    185:     them here, so that we don't forget about them!
                    186:   <DT>
1.61      frystyk   187:     <B><A HREF="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-lib/threads.html">w3c-lib@w3.org</A></B>
1.56      frystyk   188:   <DD>
                    189:     A <STRONG>W3C member</STRONG> mailing list for announcements of&nbsp;new
                    190:     member releases etc. See the <A HREF="../Member/Mail/">information on W3C
                    191:     member mailing lists </A>for details on how to subscribe
                    192: </DL>
                    193: <H2>
1.62      frystyk   194:   Authors and Contributors
1.56      frystyk   195: </H2>
                    196: <P>
                    197: These people and many more have been involved in turning libwww into the
                    198: shape it has today.
1.62      frystyk   199: <DL>
                    200:   <DT>
                    201:     <A HREF="../People/#Frystyk Nielsen">Henrik Frystyk Nielsen</A>
                    202:   <DD>
                    203:     Designed and Implemented libwww up until version 5.0a
                    204:   <DT>
                    205:     <A HREF="../People/#BernersLee">Tim Berners-Lee</A> and
                    206:     <A HREF="../People.html#Groff">Jean-Francois Groff</A>
                    207:   <DD>
                    208:     Came up with the initial design and implementation of libwww
                    209:   <DT>
                    210:     Eric Prud'hommeaux
                    211:   <DD>
                    212:     Provided the Windows integration and asynchronous event management along
                    213:     with many other features.
                    214:   <DT>
                    215:     <A HREF="../People/#Baird-Smith">Anselm Baird-Smith</A>
                    216:   <DD>
                    217:     Provided lots of help through many white-board discussions, especially on
                    218:     the HTTP/1.1 client side implementation.
                    219:   <DT>
                    220:     <A HREF="../People/#Kahan">Jose Kahan</A>
                    221:   <DD>
                    222:     Integrated libwww with <A HREF="../Amaya/">Amaya</A> and provided feedback
                    223:     on client side API
                    224:   <DT>
                    225:     <A HREF="../People/howcome/">H&aring;kon W. Lie</A>
                    226:   <DD>
                    227:     Integrated libwww with <A HREF="../Arena/">Arena</A>
                    228:   <DT>
1.56      frystyk   229:     and many others for contributions and bug fixes
1.62      frystyk   230: </DL>
1.38      frystyk   231: <P>
1.41      frystyk   232:   <HR>
                    233: <ADDRESS>
1.64      jigsaw    234:   <A href="../"><IMG SRC="../Icons/WWW/w3c_home" ALT="W3C" BORDER="0"></A>
1.62      frystyk   235:   <BR>
                    236:   Henrik Frystyk Nielsen,
                    237:   <A HREF="mailto:libwww@w3.org">libwww@w3.org</A>,<BR>
1.67    ! frystyk   238:   @(#) $Id: Overview.html,v 1.66 1997/02/16 18:41:03 frystyk Exp $
1.41      frystyk   239: </ADDRESS>
                    240: </BODY></HTML>

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