[CERN] Common [WWW] Library,[1][2] CERNWorld-Wide Web Library of Common Code,[3] W3C Reference Library,[4] W3C Sample Code Library,[5] W3C Protocol Library[6]
Libwww was relied upon by the then popular browserMosaic.[12] By 1997, interest in libwww declined, and theWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which took over from CERN, reduced its commitment to the project.[13] Later, the purpose of libwww was redefined to be "a testbed for protocol experiments";[6] in that role it was maintained for the benefit of the W3C'sweb standards-promoting browserAmaya.[14] Active development of libwww stopped in 2000.[9][15]
In 1991 and 1992,Tim Berners-Lee and a student atCERN namedJean-François Groff rewrote various components of the originalWorldWideWeb browser for theNeXTstepoperating system inportableC code, in order to demonstrate the potential of theWorld Wide Web.[16] In the beginning, libwww was referred to as theCommon Library and was not available as a separate product.[1] Before becoming generally available, libwww was integrated in theCERN program library (CERNLIB).[17] In July 1992 the library was ported toDECnet.[18] In the May 1993 World Wide Web Newsletter Berners-Lee announced that the Common Library was now calledlibwww and was licensed aspublic domain to encourage the development ofweb browsers.[19] He initially considered releasing the software under theGNU General Public License, rather than into the public domain, but decided against it due to concerns that large corporations such asIBM would be deterred from using it by the restrictions of the GPL.[16][20] The rapid early development of the library causedRobert Cailliau problems when integrating it into hisMacWWW browser.[12]
From February 1994 to July 1999 (versions 2.17 to 5.2.8),Henrik Frystyk Nielsen was responsible for libwww, first as a graduate student at CERN and later at theWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C).[6][8][21] On 21 March 1995, with the release of version 3.0, CERN transferred responsibility for libwww to the W3C.[9] From 1995 onwards, theLine Mode Browser was no longer released separately, but part of the libwww package.[22]
On 2 March 1997, Nielsen announced that Libwww 5.1 was expected to be the last release.[13] Later that year, on 24 Dec 1997, Nielsen put out an unsuccessful call for another party outside W3C to take over maintenance of the library.[23]
Nielsen left the W3C in July 1999, and the project was thereafter headed by José Kahan as the only W3C employee involved with the project.[21][14]
On 2 September 2003 the W3C (re-)stated that development had stopped, citing a lack of resources.[24] On 29 January 2004, the W3C once again confirmed that it would not continue development, and was seekingopen source community maintainers.[25]
The first (and only) "community supported maintenance release" was made in 2005, after a gap of 3 years.[15] After a further lapse of 12 years, a security patch was released in 2017.[26]
In 2003, Kahan claimed that "libwww is the only library that has a full implementation of the HTTP specification, including caching and pipelining."[24]
It has been used for applications of varying sizes, including web browsers, editors, Internet bots, and batch tools. Pluggable modules provided with libwww add support for HTTP/1.1 with caching, pipelining, POST, Digest Authentication, and deflate.
^abKesan, Jay P.; Shah, Rajiv C. (2004)."Deconstructing Code"(PDF).Yale Journal of Law & Technology.6: 277–389 [291–292].SSRN597543.Archived(PDF) from the original on 20 January 2010. Retrieved17 October 2022.
^Ball, Steve (10–13 July 1996).SurfIt! – A WWW Browser(PostScript). Monterey, CA: USENIX. Retrieved28 November 2010.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
