Uploaded September 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The web has continued to evolve since it was originally created. A great example of that evolution is how the path in a HTTP request is interpreted by the web server. In the early days of the web, that path frequently named an actual HTML document that was stored on the server—it was a file name. But as the web evolved and server side page rendering became more common the semantics of the path changed. Now it can mean pretty much anything that the server wants it to. And it’s probably most accurate to think of it as providing parameters to afunction call on the server that returns a web document.
Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).
Part of the internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.
The web has continued to evolve since it was originally created. A great example of that evolution is how the path in a HTTP request is interpreted by the web server. In the early days of the web, that path frequently named an actual HTML document that was stored on the server—it was a file name. But as the web evolved and server side page rendering became more common the semantics of the path changed. Now it can mean pretty much anything that the server wants it to. And it’s probably most accurate to think of it as providing parameters to afunction call on the server that returns a web document.
Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).
Part of the internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.
