Assignment: Who founded the web? - Hsanokklis/2023-2024-Tech-journal GitHub Wiki
History and Foundation of the Web:
Q 1: Who founded the "web" and when? What was the intent?
British Computer Scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web. He worked as a software engineer at CERN in Switzerland, where he collaborated with scientists from all over the world. Since scientists were from all over the world, and needed to be able to share information effectively, Berners-Lee decided he would make the web to allow for ease of communication/sharing of information for the scientists who worked at CERN. His first proposal for the Web was rejected in 1989, but he was allowed to continue his work, and thus finished his creation of the Web in 1990. In 1991, access to the web was given to people outside of CERN and has since dramatically changed into the Internet that we know and use daily.
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Q 2: What's HTML: What it is, its history, and importance.
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the formatting language for the web that is used to create web pages. It contains elements that tell the browser how to display and structure the web page content. Tim Burners-Lee created it along with URI and HTTP, as part of the foundation of the Web. The first version of HTML was written in 1993 and there have since been many more versions created as the Web has developed. In the 2000’s, HTML 4.01 became the standard and was the most widely used version at the time. Now browsers still support this version, but HTML5 is the new standard most web pages use. Without HTML we would not have readable web pages, rather just a jumbled mess of text and images.
Sources:
- https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
- https://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/html4explained.html#:~:text=They%20released%20HTML%204.,browsers%20that%20support%20it%20fully.
- https://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/
- https://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/webd2/student/unit1/module3/html_history.html#:~:text=The%20first%20version%20of%20HTML,HTML%20as%20an%20XML%20language.
Q 3: What is an URI: How are they used on the modern web
A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is used to identify each resource on the web with a unique identifier. There are 2 types of URIs: Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and Uniform Resource Names (URNs). URLs are used to identify and locate web pages. A URI identifies a resource but does not guarantee that you have access to it, whereas a URL identifies the resources queried and can tell you if you have access to the resources or where it is located. URLs begin with the protocol being used to access resources (such as HTTP, or FTP) and they use protocols such as DNS to find resources based on the IP address associated with a domain name. Unlike URLs, URNs are location independent, meaning that if a resource is changed, the URN link won’t change with it, it will always go to the same location. Without the use of URI, URL and URN we wouldn’t be able to identify and access any web pages in a quick and efficient way.
Sources:
- https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/URI-Uniform-Resource-Identifier
- https://auth0.com/blog/url-uri-urn-differences/
Q 4: What is HTTP: At a high level- describe how it works
The HyperText Transfer Protocol(HTTP) is an application layer protocol that is used to transfer information between networked devices. It is specifically used to load web pages using hypertext links. It works by sending requests to a server for a specific piece of information (ex: a web page) and receiving a response. The request contains the HTTP version type, a URL, an HTTP method, a HTTP request header and HTTP request body. The HTTP method is a verb (GET/POST) that indicates the action the HTTP expects from the server. A GET request means that HTTP wants information back from the server, whereas a POST request means that the client is giving the server information (like a username/password). HTTP request headers contain data that is necessary to complete the request like what browser the client is using and what is being requested. The request body has the information being submitted to the web server. After the request is made, the server sends back a response packet that contains an HTTP status code (which normally will tell you if the request is successful or not), an HTTP response header, and a HTTP body. Using HTTP, we are able to efficiently load pages on the Internet!
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