I have just started researching the HTTP protocol and thought that maybe someone out there can point me in the right direction.

What I want to do is write a mainframe app that can connect to a web server and send it data, just as a browser does when the user clicks the Submit button after they have entered the necessary data on the web page.

I have the RFC on the HTTP/1.0 protocol. What I need is a clearer picture of how the data is formatted before it is sent. FWIW, I will be coding this in C using native sockets calls.

Can anyone suggest some good books on this topic?

TIA