Subj : Re: Novice seeking advice
To   : comp.programming
From : Willem
Date : Mon Aug 08 2005 10:17 pm

programmernovice@yahoo.com wrote:
) I'd like to learn to extract information from websites automatically,
) which is available from them manually.  Sites such as ebay, etc.  I
) have a little basic familiarity with logic, looping, etc. but
) unfortunately learned to program in the Fortran days!  I'd appreciate
) any and all recommendations on how to go about getting started on
) this, such as which language, which books are best to learn from, etc.
) Many thanks for all help.

First, learn the HTTP protocol.  Then, find out how these websites work,
I.E. what kind of HTTP requests they generate from the information you type
in manually.

Then it should be a matter of forming an HTTP request such that it will get
you the information you need, sending it to the right server, receiving the
data you get in response (a text/html stream, usually), and cutting out the
relevant bits.

So what you need is a language that makes it easy and/or has libraries for
parsing/forming text, and doing TCP/IP stuff.

perl comes to mind, as does tcl, and probably a host of other high-level
scripting type languages.  Depends on what you know already, really, and
what you're comfortable with.


SaSW, Willem
-- 
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any of the statements
            made in the above text. For all I know I might be
            drugged or something..
            No I'm not paranoid. You all think I'm paranoid, don't you !
#EOT

.