The above list is a good start. I'd add: 2a) make clicking on links work, and 3a) display images. Those two features will make it much more fun. "How to make a

The above list is a good start. I'd add: 2a) make clicking on links work, and 3a) display images. Those two features will make it much more fun. "How to make a browser" is something I've thought about for a while, ever since someone suggested it as an interview question. (I think it would be an awful question.) It really depends on what you're trying to do. If you want to understand how browsers work and build a toy browser, follow jbb555's list. If you want to display web pages, use WebKit. If you want to build a real, commercial-scale browser, I recommend a large team, since there are a lot of components, each of which is insanely complex. (Everything from CSS support to security to plugins to JavaScript to bookmarks to a debugger to all the new network protocols.) One more thing to add to jbb555's list: 0) "telnet news.ycombinator.com 80, GET /" - playing around from the command line can give you a good introduction to what really happens when you access a web page. (Edit: HN returns an error page for a plain GET. google.com returns insane code. apple.com looks like a better place to start.)