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_wininet.html
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#include "_doctype.html"
<html>
<head> <title>libcurl - WinInet Comparison</title>
#include "css.t"
</head>
#define LIBCURL_WININET
#define CURL_URL libcurl/wininet.html
#include "_menu.html"
#include "setup.t"
#include "table.t"
WHERE2(libcurl, "/libcurl/", WinInet Comparison)
TITLE(Notes About WinInet compared to libcurl)
<div class="relatedbox">
<b>Related:</b>
<br><a href="/docs/features.html">libcurl Features</a>
<br><a href="competitors.html">Compare HTTP Libraries</a>
<br><a href="libwww.html">libwww comparison</a>
</div>
<ul>
<li> there is a <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/238425">tech note
from Microsoft</a> that says not to use WinInet from system context.
<li> Even if you ignore the tech note, there are a bunch of annoyances with
using WinInet from system context. The biggest of which is proxy settings.
In general, the settings are stored per user, so if you find yourself in
system context, the correct settings may not be there. Or, if you need to
impersonate another user, you are in the same boat. Gotta love the plain text
config file. I am curious if people worry about their proxy credentials
lying around in plain text, or if they encrypt them, or what.
<li> Even with the correct settings, there are certain versions of IE (I
think it is 6, and maybe with some service packs) that do not work properly
when communicating to proxies with basic authentication.
<li> There are so many sweet features with curl that are not available with
WinInet. Like for example support for more protocols.
<li> I have never tried to deal with Microsoft for WinInet support, but the
curl support (i.e. the <a href="/mail/">libcurl mailing list</a>, and Daniel
in particular) is <i>really</i> good.
<li> Even if portability is not a concern now, it might be later. And,
there is more than just code portability. If you get good with curl, you will
have a useful skill if you work on other platforms. I doubt we will see
WinInet ported anywhere else anytime soon.
<li> We had some servers in-house and others outside our main network. Each
one needed its own proxy and id/password settings for connecting. WinInet
will only store one current configuration. This meant that we could not
connect to both an internal and external server at the same time.
<li> Another issue was trying to explain to people that when they messed up
their IE settings, the application would fail.
<li> Some of our customers did not USE Internet Explorer. It was installed,
but not configured. This meant they had to set up and configure the beast
that is IE, even if they would never use it.
</ul>
<p> A quote from <a href="https://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/2003/Oct/0391.html">Leonard Rosenthol</a> on the abiword development mailing list:
<div class="quote">
<i> WinInet is fine for a "hack", but is not usable for serious I/O - libcurl is
MUCH more robust, flexible, and faster.</i>
</div>
<p> Thanks to David Byron and Bradford Bruce for much of this input.
<p>
If you disagree, agree and/or have other facts/opinions. Mail the <a
href="/mail/">curl-library mailing list</a> and tell!
#include "_footer.html"
</body>
</html>