Chapter 1. Web technologies and HTTP
This chapter covers
This chapter gives you background on how the web works today and explains some key concepts necessary for the rest of this book to make sense; then it introduces HTTP and the history of the previous versions. I expect many of the readers of this book to be at least somewhat familiar with a lot of what is discussed in this first chapter, but I encourage you not to skip it; use this chapter as an opportunity to refresh yourself on the basics.
The internet has become an integral part of everyday life. Shopping, banking, communication, and entertainment all depend on the internet, and with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), more and more devices are being put online, where they can be accessed remotely. This access is made possible by several technologies, including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a key method of requesting access to remote web applications and resources. Although most people understand how to use a web browser to surf the internet, few truly understand how this technology works, why HTTP is a core part of the web, or why the next version (HTTP/2) is causing such excitement in the web community.