Core Web Programming, Second Edition

17.4. Example: A Network Client That Retrieves URLs

Retrieving a document through HTTP is remarkably simple. You open a connection to the HTTP port of the machine hosting the page, send the string GET followed by the address of the document, followed by the string HTTP/1.0, followed by a blank line (at least one blank space is required between GET and address, and between address and HTTP). You then read the result one line at a time. Reading a line at a time was not safe with the mail client of Section 17.3 because the server sent an indeterminate number of lines but kept the connection open. Here, however, a readLine is safe because the server closes the connection when done, yielding null as the return value of readLine.

Although quite simple, ...