History of the dynamic web

A website, or individual web page, can be static or dynamic. A
static website contains information that does not change. It remains the same, or static, for every viewer of the
site. A dynamic website contains information that changes, depending on the
viewer, the time of the day, the time zone,
the viewer's native language, and other factors.

A history of the dynamic web

Most used programming languages on the web today:

• PHP -- Dynamic websites with PHP


• ASP
  Including the .NET
  Framework


• Perl


• Python


• Ruby
  

As is generally well known, the early days of the internet and the world wide web
were not particularly dynamic. While dial-up BBSes and early websites allowed unprecedented access to people around the world, the visual
display of that information was not of the highest
priority. Bandwidth was at a premium (insert joke about current monopoly
telco practices here), so it was generally by
necessity that information is presented in a manner that was not overly
taxing on download size. While this edict has largely held true over
the years, and even into today, the available bandwidth that visitors have, and the technologies used to get that
information to them, have greatly improved and provided us all with
wave after wave of exciting new things to discover on the web.
Today we enjoy websites that are full of content and services that let us take care of anything imaginable online (well,
almost). But the ride to our “Web 2.0” world of today has taken quite a while. It has been about 14 years since the
first web page with dynamic content was created.
This is a look at the history of the dynamic web, especially the server-side programming languages and frameworks that
make it all possible.

From static to dynamic

When the Web first started, there were only static HTML pages. The internet had been around for some time already, but
it was only after the introduction of HTML (and with it, web browsers) that what we call the World-Wide Web got started.
A lot has happened since then. We would like to place the birth of the dynamic web to when CGI, Common Gateway
The interface was first introduced in 1993, 14 years ago. CGI was a way to let a website run scripts (usually Perl scripts
back then) on the web server and display the output.
Now the web has evolved tremendously and is powered by server-side technologies and languages such as PHP, Java,
ASP.NET, Python, Ruby (with Ruby on Rails), and many others.
(You may gasp in horror that we have not yet mentioned JavaScript and AJAX, but remember that the focus of this article
is on the server side, not the client side.)
So, how did we get from A to B? For your viewing pleasure, we have created a handy little timeline.

The future of the dynamic web

These days websites are in many cases full-fledged browser-based applications. The line between web and desktop
applications is blurring more for every day that passes.
There is a strong movement towards RIA (Rich Internet
Applications) where some notable initiatives are JavaFX from
Sun, Flex from Adobe and Silverlight from Microsoft. These frameworks allow for richer,
more interactive and responsive web applications that can have more elements of regular desktop applications.
It seems very likely that the difference between what is a desktop application and what is a web application will
eventually, disappear.
A positive side effect of putting more power and flexibility on the client side, versus the way many web applications
work today is that it not only sidesteps limitations of HTML/CSS and JavaScript, but it will also make it easier for
websites (web applications) to scale in the future since the load on the backend servers would lessen.
One thing we know for sure: Whatever the future of the web holds, it’s going to be an interesting ride.

Glossary (to fill in the blanks if you have any)

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
A standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, usually a web server.
Perl
Perl was a highly used language on the early web and still is very much alive today. Large websites using Perl include
Amazon.com, LiveJournal.com, Ticketmaster.com and IMDb.com.
Python
A programming language that keeps gaining popularity. Some projects that use Python are the Zope application server,
YouTube and Google has mentioned that they use Python extensively.
PHP
Most likely the most used server-side scripting language in the world. Over 19 million internet domains are currently
hosted on servers with PHP installed. Examples of popular server-side PHP applications include phpBB, WordPress, and
MediaWiki.
ColdFusion
Adobe’s ColdFusion framework still has a strong following. According to Adobe, ColdFusion is in use at 75 of the Fortune
100 companies.
ASP and ASP.NET
Microsoft’s framework for dynamic web pages. Examples of sites using ASP.NET are MySpace.com, Dell.com, Match.com and
Monster.com. Common languages used with ASP.NET include Visual Basic and C#.
Lasso
Scripting language and framework loved by the Apple Mac community.
Java Servlet
Server-side Java. Sun’s Java language has a strong developer following. Some sites that use Java are eBay.com,
LinkedIn.com and Hi5.com.
Ruby on Rails
A complete framework built around the Ruby scripting language. The philosophy of Ruby on Rails has been adopted to other
languages with framework releases such as Django (Python), CakePHP (PHP), Symfony (PHP) and many more. Basecamp and
Twitter are two websites running on Ruby on Rails.

History of the World Wide Web

A Little History of the World Wide Web

from 1945 to 1995

1945

Vannevar Bush writes an article in Atlantic Monthly about a photo-electrical-mechanical device called a Memex, for
memory extension, which could make and follow links between documents on microfiche.
Doug Engelbart prototypes an "oNLine System" (NLS) which does hypertext browsing editing, email, and so on. He invents
the mouse for this purpose. See the Bootstrap Institute Library.
Ted Nelson coins the word Hypertext in A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate. 20th
National Conference, New York, Association for Computing Machinery, 1965. See also: Literary Machines. Note: There used
to be a link here to "Hypertext and Hypermedia: A Selected Bibliography" by Terence Harpold, but the site hosting the
resource did not maintain the link.
Andy van Dam and others build the Hypertext Editing System and FRESS in 1967.

1980

While consulting for CERN June-December of 1980, Tim Berners-Lee writes a notebook program,
"Enquire-Within-Upon-Everything", which allows links to be made between arbitrary nodes. Each node had a title, a type,
and a list of bidirectional typed links. "ENQUIRE" ran on Norsk Data machines under SINTRAN-III. See: Enquire user
manual as scanned images or as HTML page(alt).

1989

March
"Information Management: A Proposal" written by Tim BL and circulated for comments at CERN (TBL). Paper "HyperText and
CERN" produced as background (text or WriteNow format).

1990

May Proposal recirculated.
September
Mike Sendall, Tim's boss, the purchase of a NeXT cube, and allows Tim to go ahead and write a global hypertext system.
October
Tim starts work on a hypertext GUI browser+editor using the NeXTStep development environment. He makes up "WorldWideWeb"
as a name for the program. (See the first browser screenshot) "World Wide Web" as a name for the project (over
Information Mesh, Mine of Information, and Information Mine).
Project original proposal reformulated with encouragement from CN and ECP divisional management. Robert Cailliau (ECP)
joins and is of the version.
November
Initial WorldWideWeb program development continues on the NeXT (TBL) . This was a "what you see is what you get" ()
browser/editor with the inline creation of links. The first web server was nxoc01.cern.ch, later called info.cern.ch,
and the first web page http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the
historical site. Note from this era too, the least recently modified web page we know of, last changed Tue, 13 Nov 1990
15:17:00 GMT (Though the URI changed.)
November
Technical Student Nicola Pellow (CN) joins and starts work on the line-mode browser. Bernd Pollermann (CN) helps to get
CERNVM "FIND" index running. TBL gives a colloquium on hypertext in general.
Christmas
Line mode browser and WorldWideWeb browser/editor demonstrable. Access is possible to hypertext files, CERNVM "FIND",
and Internet news articles.

1991

February for ECP division. 26 February 1991 Presentation of the project to the ECP/PT group.
March
Line mode browser (www) released to the audience on vax, rs6000, sun4.
May
Workplan produced for CN/AS group.
17 May
Presentation to "C5" Committee. A general release of WWW on central CERN machines.
12 June
CERN Computer Seminar on WWW.
August
The file available on the net by FTP, posted on alt.hypertext (6th, 6th, 19th Aug), comp.sys.next.announce (20th),
comp.text.sgml and comp.mail.multi-media (22nd). Jean-Francois Groff joins the project.
October
VMS/HELP and WAIS gateways installed. Mailing lists www-interest (now www-announce) and www-talk@info.cern.ch (see
archive) started. One year status report. Anonymous telnet service started.
December
Presented poster and demonstration at Hypertext'91 in San Antonio, Texas (US). the browser installed on VM/CMS. CERN
computer newsletter announces W3 to the HEP world.
Dec 12: Paul Kunz installs first Web server outside of Europe, at SLAC.

1992

15 January
Line mode browser releases 1.1 available by anonymous FTP (see news). Presentation to AIHEP'92 at La Londe (FR).
12 February
Line mode v 1.2 on alt.hypertext, comp.infosystems, comp.mail.multi-media, .sting, comp.archives.admin, and mailing
lists.
April
29th April: Release of Finnish "Erwise" GUI client for X mentioned in by TimBL.
May
Pei Wei's "Viola" GUI browser for X test version dated May 15. (See by TimBL)
At CERN, Presentation and demo at JENC3, Innsbruck (AT). Technical Student Carl Barker (ECP) joins the project.
June
Presentation and demo at HEPVM (Lyon). People at FNAL (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)), NIKHEF (Nationaal
Instituut Hoge Energie Fysika, (NL)), DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Hamburg, (DE)) join with WWW servers.
July
Distribution of WWW through CernLib, including Viola. WWW library code ported to DECnet. Report to the Advisory Board on
Computing.
August
Introduction of CVS for code management at CERN.
September
Plenary session demonstration to the HEP community at CHEP'92 in Annecy (FR).
November
Jump back in time to a snapshot of the WWW Project Page as of 3 Nov 1992 and the WWW project web of the time, including
the list of all 26 reliable servers, NCSA's having just been added, but no sign of Mosaic.

1993

January
By now, Midas (Tony Johnson, SLAC), Erwise (HUT), and Viola (Pei Wei, O'Reilly Associates) browsers are available for X;
CERN Mac browser (ECP) released as alpha. Around 50 known HTTP servers.
February
NCSA release a first alpha version of Marc Andreessen's "Mosaic for X". Computing seminar at CERN. The University of
Minnesota announced that they would begin to charge licensing fees for Gopher's use, which caused many volunteers and
employees to stop using it and switch to WWW.
March
WWW (Port 80 HTTP) traffic measures 0.1% of NSF backbone traffic. WWW presented at Online Publishing 93, Pittsburgh.
The Acceptable Use Policy prohibiting commercial use of the Internet re-interpreted., so that it allowed.
April
April 30: Date on the declaration by CERN's directors that WWW technology would be freely usable by anyone, with no fees
being payable to CERN. A milestone document.
July
Ari Luotonen (ECP) joins the project at CERN. He implements access, proceeds to re-write the CERN server.
July 28-30
O'Reilly hosts first WWW Wizards Workshop in Cambridge Mass (US).
September
WWW (Port 80 ) traffic measures 1% of NSF backbone traffic. NCSA releases working versions of Mosaic browser for all
common platforms: X, PC/Windows Macintosh.
September 6-10: On a bus at a seminar Information at Newcastle University, MIT's Prof. David Gifford suggests Tim BL
contact Michael Dertouzos of MIT/LCS as a possible consortium host site.
October
Over 200 known HTTP servers. The European Commission, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft CERN start the first Web-based project
of the European Union (DG XIII): WISE. Using the Web of technological information to Europe's fewer regions.
December
WWW receives IMA award. John Markov writes a page and a half on WWW and Mosaic in "The New York Times" (US) business
section. "The Guardian" (UK) publishes a page on WWW, "The Economist" (UK) analyses the Internet and WWW.
Robert Cailliau gets go-ahead from CERN Management to the First International WWW Conference at CERN.

1994

January
O'Reilly, Spry, etc. announce the "Internet in a box" product to bring the Web into homes.
March
Marc Andreessen and colleagues leave NCSA to form "Mosaic Communications Corp" (later Netscape).
May 25-27
First International WWW Conference, CERN, Geneva. Heavily oversubscribed (800 apply, 400 allowed in): the "Woodstock of
the Web". VRML is conceived here. TBL's closing keynote hints at the organization. (Some of Tim's slides on Semantic
Web)
June
M. Bangemann report on European Commission Information Superhighway plan. Over 1500 registered servers.
Load on the first Web server (info.cern.ch) 1000 times what it has been 3 years earlier.
Over June '91 to June 94, stead
July
MIT/CERN agreement to start W3 Organisation is announced by Bangemann in Boston. MIT press release. Reports in Wall
Street Journal, Boston Globe etc.
August
The founding of the IW3C2: the International WWW Conference Committee, in Boston, by NCSA and CERN.
September
The European Commission and CERN propose the WebCore project for the development of the Web core technology in Europe.
1 October
World Wide Web Consortium founded.
October
Second International WWW Conference: "Mosaic and the Web", Chicago. Also heavily oversubscribed: 2000 apply, 1300
allowed in.
14 December
First W3 Consortium Meeting at M.I.T. in Cambridge (USA).
15 December
First meeting with European Industry and the European Consortium branch, at the European Commission, Brussels.
16 December
CERN Council unanimously approves the construction of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator, CERN's next machine
and a competitor to the US' already defunct SSC (Superconducting Supercollider). Stringent budget conditions are however
imposed. CERN thus decides not to continue WWW development, and in concertation with the European Commission and INRIA
(the Institute National pour la Recherche en Informatique et Automotive, FR) transfers the WebCore project to INRIA.

1995

February
the Web is the main reason for the theme of the G7 meeting hosted by the European Commission in the European Parliament
buildings in Brussels (BE).
March
CERN holds a two-day seminar for the European Media (press, radio, TV), attended by 250 reporters, to show WWW. It is
demonstrated on 60 machines, with 30 pupils from the local International High School helping the reporters "surf the
Web."
April
Third International WWW Conference: "Tools and Applications", hosted by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, in Darmstadt (DE)
June
The founding of the Web Society in Graz (AT), by the Technical University of Graz (home of Hyper-G), CERN, the
University of
Minnesota (home of Gopher) and INRIA.