accessing xml streams independently of a web browser

[jim enright]

this was posted in vc++ forum but lack of comment suggests that is not right location.

i would appreciate critiques of my understanding of internet communicaitons and an answer to my q if my understanding is right.

1. internet web pages consists of streams of what would be html or xml files if located on disk being passed back and forth through ports and they reside in memory

2. web browsers translate these streams into visual displays/web pages and may actually store the stream for a page or pages in a file on disk

if this is true is there a way to:

a. access the (presumed) xml stream via some mechanism (api?) in mfc and if so,
b. can i perform these xml file/data exchanges without the use of a web browser

in other words can i communicate with a web server without any web browser display of the contents of the data.


would appreciate any answers and/or helpful links.

thanks