This book is for people who want to write programs that communicate with each other using an application program interface (API) known as sockets. Some readers may be very familiar with sockets already, as that model has become synonymous with network programming. Others may need an introduction to sockets from the ground up. The goal of this book is to offer guidance on network programming for beginners as well as professionals, for those developing new network-aware applications as well as those maintaining existing code, and for people who simply want to understand how the networking components of their system function.
1