threads = {}    -- list of all live threads
    function get (host, file, output)
      -- create coroutine
      local co = coroutine.create(function ()
        download(host, file, output)
      end)
      -- insert it in the list
      table.insert(threads, co)
    end

    function dispatcher ()
      while true do
        local n = table.getn(threads)
        if n == 0 then break end   -- no more threads to run
        local connections = {}
        for i=1,n do
          local status, res = coroutine.resume(threads[i])
          if res == nil then -- thread finished its task
            table.remove(threads, i)
            break
          else    -- timeout
            table.insert(connections, res)
          end
        end
        if table.getn(connections) == n then
          socket.select(connections)
        end
      end
    end

    function receive (connection)
connection:settimeout(0.051)   -- do not block
      local s, status = connection:receive(2^10)
      if status == "timeout" then
        coroutine.yield(connection)
      end
      return s, status
    end

    function download (host, file, output)
f = io.output(output)
      local c = assert(socket.connect(host, 80))
      local count = 0    -- counts number of bytes read
      c:send("GET " .. file .. " HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n")
      while true do
s, status = receive(c)

if s ~= nil then
        count = count + string.len(s)
--assembles the actual file
if actualfile == nil then
actualfile = s
else
actualfile = actualfile..s
end
end

        if status == "closed" then break end
      end
      c:close()
      print(file, count) --filename and length
f:write(actualfile)
f:flush()
f:close()
    end