This site will host draft chapters from Building the Web, a history of web architecture aimed at senior engineers and CS students.
The book traces the evolution of web infrastructure, from the earliest HTTP servers to modern distributed systems, and asks: how did we get here, and what can we learn from the journey?
Topics will include:
- The origins of HTTP and the early web server landscape
- CGI, application servers, and the shift to dynamic content
- Caching, CDNs, and the geography of the web
- The rise of REST and API-driven architectures
- Databases, queues, and the infrastructure beneath web applications
- Modern patterns: microservices, edge computing, and beyond
Each post here is a draft chapter or essay. Feedback is welcome. This is being built in public.
Stay tuned.