Rough consensus and running code is the main idea behind libwww. As for all W3C OpenSource code, the purpose of libwww is to provide an environment for experimenting with extensions and new features. The focus of libwww is performance, modularity, and extensibility. It contains highly efficient code for HTTP and URIs but also for many other parts of the Web, primarily for client side applications like robots, browsers, GUI apps, and automated tools.
Libwww has been part of the World Wide Web almost from the beginning. Tim Berners-Lee designed and implemented the first version back in November 1992 as part of demonstrating the potential of the Web. Many people have picked up libwww and used it in a variety of contexts. Applications such as Lou Montulli's Lynx character based client, Mosaic Web browser by Marc Andreesen and Eric Bena, and the CERN server by Ari Luotonen were all using later versions of libwww. Later on, applications like the Arena browser by Dave Raggett and Håkon W. Lie have been added to the list.
makeDefs.pl perl script, see the description below. You can use the def files as a basis for generating the DLL projects for your compiler.
What to do: Generate
the DLLs according to the def files so the exported interface is identical to
the set of functions defined in the actual c files included in the DLL.
Unfortunately, make files are not easily shared among different C compilers on Windows which complicates the distribution. See the installation instructions for details on possible ways of building libwww on windows.