Index

A network, be it intra or internet, can be most interesting (read troublesome!) to set up. Trying to get computers talking to each other can cause a few headaches for management, and an excuse for playing computers for the implementors. Getting a computer to talk to itself, too, can be interesting, but there's a few less problems there. So when I wanted to play with TCP/IP, the obvious thing to do was to use the loopback interface, putting the server and client on one computer. Only one problem: I needed a server. As I couldn't find one packaged with OS/2 Warp, I turned to a book on Java programming, borrowed from the Melbourne PC User Group library, which contained complete source for an HTTP 0.9 server.

After tweaking the code to compile on my (older) Java compiler, and adding features such as HTTP 1.0 compatibility (partial), CGI scripting (rather imperfect - sorry!), POST support (the original only supported GET), etc, the result is this: a simple HTTP 1.0 server which supports multiple simultaneous clients, directories, CGI, and a few other neat features.

HTTPServer supports the following options:

• -root to set the server's root directory (default = current directory)
• -port controls the port used (default = 80)
• -default sets the name of the file used when the URL ends with a slash (default = default.htm).

All options are case insensitive, order insensitive, and optional. Example:

Planned additions:

• Better CGI support (especially POST form data)
• Semi-FTP support (trailing slash makes directory listing)

File: HTTPServer.ZIP
Requires: REXX
Installation: None.
Operation: Run, optionally with arguments.
De-installation: Delete.
Distribution: Open Source.