OpenAPI – Automated Hacks

Chapter 37 (1990–1994): Before Swagger—How Early HTTP Interfaces Shaped API Documentation Workflows

Swagger and OpenAPI feel modern, but their core ideas—contracts, endpoints, headers, and examples—trace back to the Web’s earliest HTTP interfaces. This chapter looks at 1990–1994 documentation practices that quietly set the pattern for today’s API tooling.

Chapter 36: Before OpenAPI—How 1990–1994 Web Standards Shaped the Idea of a Standardized API Description

OpenAPI didn’t exist in the early 1990s, but the Web’s first standards—URLs, HTTP, MIME types, and simple server-side interfaces—introduced the core idea that an API can be described consistently. This chapter traces the roots of standardized API descriptions from 1990 to 1994.